


Who Needs Powers?

by CanuckleheadCowgirl, magnetocerebro



Series: The 495 Marvel Universe [6]
Category: Avengers (Comics), X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: F/M, Gen, HANDS OFF SINISTER, JUST LET THEM BE HAPPY, X-Babies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-28
Updated: 2019-03-18
Packaged: 2019-10-18 10:02:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 45,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17578784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CanuckleheadCowgirl/pseuds/CanuckleheadCowgirl, https://archiveofourown.org/users/magnetocerebro/pseuds/magnetocerebro
Summary: In the sixth volume of the 495 Universe, Clint Barton has the huge family he never knew he needed... complete with all the drama.He's got a brand new little brother, and he's already promised that he's going to do everything he can to protect little James Howlett. And he's also promised to teach Scott and Jean's new little twins everything they need to know about being a hero. (After all, he wants to be an X-Man AND an Avenger when he grows up.)But there's a shadow over both the Howlett and Summers families, and when Mr. Sinister takes an interest in the rising generation, Clint finds himself in the crosshairs.And how is one little boy supposed to protect his family from that much evil?





	1. Hello, James

 

* * *

Just before Christmas, Scott and Jean had welcomed their twins into the world, so instead of going out to the cabin for as long as they usually did, Clint and his family had stuck around to meet little Nate and Lizzie Summers… and then gone to the cabin  _after_ Christmas.

They wanted to go before K was too close to her due date, because Hank knew for a fact that K was a flight risk the closer the time came for what was going to have to be a surgery… but on the other hand, K had to get out in the fresh air.

And it ended up being perfect anyway, because Katie's birthday was on New Year's Eve, so they kicked off their stay at the cabin with birthday cake for Katie instead of Clint (since Clint had his at  _Avengers Tower_ , which was almost as awesome as having it at the cabin) and then stuck around for a few weeks until it was pretty clear K had to go back if she wanted to have access to Hank and a dampener that would let her have painkillers and put her out for the whole thing.

Susie was totally fascinated by that part of things, too. She'd thought it was so cool how Hank had made Jean go all loopy when he had to perform a C-section to get the twins, and she was kinda looking forward to seeing if K got loopy too.

But unlike with Jean, Hank asked Susie to please wait outside and take care of her sister while he went to work — especially since K had gone into an honest panic when things really started to get rolling.

Which meant that the Barton boys and the Bishop girls were all waiting outside the room trying to figure out what to do with themselves… until, finally, Hank said that they could come in.

K was clearly exhausted as she held on to the little bundle, and she looked as if she was really only then catching her breath, which was a big switch from when Jean had the twins. Logan had sat down with her so she could lean on him, and K was absolutely taking advantage. "Hi, guys," she said quietly. "Come and meet James."

Susie was actually the fastest of all four of the kids — since Clint and Barney had suddenly turned a little uncertain, and Katie had shorter legs. But Katie made it there shortly after, and both girls climbed up with wide eyes.

"He looks like Nate and Lizzie," Susie says. "All babies look all pink and wrinkly — and they've got big heads."

"He's got a lot more hair than Nate or Lizzie," Hank said with a smirk.

"Yeah, and Lizzie's all red and Nate's all brown. But they all look like babies, not like Logan or Scott or Jean or K…" Susie shrugged. "I guess they're just still too little."

"I think he's still pretty cool," Clint said softly, inching around to the other side of the bed with Barney to peek over at the little guy.

"I think he's got his father's nose," K said, tipping James so the boys could see him better. "What say you, sweethearts?"

"I think…" Barney looked between James and Logan. "Yeah. It's kinda shaped the same."

"Can I hold him?" Clint asked, glancing up at K hesitantly. "Is… is that okay?"

"Of course it is," K said, moving over to make room for him to join her. "He  _is_  your little brother."

"Yeah, but he's so little," Clint said as he came to sit with her. And just like that, K started to hand James over to Clint, and Logan gave him a few easy pointers, and before Clint knew it, he was holding James all on his own.

Katie giggled when she saw Clint and James. "You're gonna break your face!" she called out. "That's what Jean says if you smile that big!"

"He's not going to break his face," K said, shaking her head.

"Yeah, he is! He's too happy!"

K let out a tired breath at that. "Barney, did you want to say hello, too?"

Barney nodded tentatively. "Yeah," he said. "Wow. I remember meeting Clint, but… he seems smaller…"

"Well … not sure if you noticed, but it's not like we're giants," K said.

"Yeah, I noticed that Clint's got you both beat now, and he's  _nine_ ," Barney laughed.

"Don't think the world could handle it if I was taller," Logan said with a smirk.

"Yeah, then there'd be  _two_ super tall superheroes," Clint said with a grin. "You and me."

Logan smirked at that. "Guess we'll never know how that'd work out."

"Maybe James'll be taller," Susie offered. "My dad says that he's hoping Nate gets as tall as a  _tree_ so Scott has to look up at him."

K leaned back into Logan a little more. "It's possible … my father was taller."

"See?" Susie gestured between K and Logan. "Then they can be super tall  _together!_ "

"Little ways out to worry about it," Logan said, making room for Susie, too. "Come on, you too, troubles. I know you wanna."

Susie smiled and climbed up to be part of the snuggles. "Well, he's  _Katie's_ little brother. I've got my fuzzy blue dad. Can I still kiss him on the head like I do with Lizzie and Nate?"

"You sure can," Logan said, nodding.

Susie grinned at that and then leaned over to  _very_ gentle kiss James' head. "Hi, James. I'm your big sorta sister too. The not-weird one."

"My Clint says being weird is good because it's like being like our mom!" Katie countered, sticking her tongue out at Susie.

But before the two of them could get into much of an argument, there was a sound of pure  _joy_ from the doorway, and they looked up to see that Jean had her hands clasped underneath her chin and was almost bouncing in place — and clearly would have rushed over if she wasn't holding Lizzie.

Not that it was going to stop Rachel, who had escaped her dad (who was hampered by holding Nate) and rushed over to join the snuggles, giggling madly.

"You got your baby!" she sang out. "You got your baby!"

"Hey, little sweetpea; how'd you know to come down?" K asked, though she had glanced up at Jean and Scott.

Rachel giggled. "My mom knows everything!"

"Jean was worried," Scott said with a smirk.

"Sorry about that," K said Jean's way. "Really."

"It's alright," Jean promised. "Because now, you've got the  _cutest_ little guy — I mean, second only to mine, but that's no contest."

Logan snorted at that. "Nice save, Jeannie."

"She saw the nose," Scott deadpanned without missing a beat.

"It's Daddy's," Katie informed him with a bright smile.

Scott smirked and ruffled her hair as he came over. "Sure is."

"I love his nose," K said before she stole a kiss from Logan. "Clint … why don't you let Jean hold James before she steals him from you anyhow."

"Oh, I guess," Clint said with a smile as Jean handed Lizzie to K so she could pick up the little boy. "But only 'cause you're right and she's a baby thief."

"I am. I am not even a little bit sorry," Jean said, positively melting all over the little guy.

"You're transparent, Mrs. Summers," K said.

"I know," Jean said with a smile. "But, oh, see if you can get a smile — the twins are doing it sometimes, but not all the time."

"Nate did it first," Scott teased.

"Nate did it to  _you_  first," Jean shot back without missing a beat.

"Oh, no," K said, shaking her head. "That had to be gas. False start. Nice try, Scott."

Jean laughed out loud. "Ha! Told you!"

"Scott, you know  _we_ know when you're lying," K said, giving him a look that made it clear that he was being ridiculous. "This competitive thing with your wife is ugly."

Scott smirked. "Lies. Nothing I do is ugly. Especially not with a baby."

Logan shook his head at the two of them as K took it up a step: "Well … not when Jean made sure they'd be the pretty ones between you."

Scott paused and then burst into a laugh. "I can't even argue, because my kids are  _gorgeous_."

"Like their mother," K agreed. "You got lucky."

"You know it."

"Well, now that that's established…" Jean smiled and made her way over to Scott. "Your turn. Trade me baby boys."

Scott grinned as they played a little bit of baby hot potato and then tucked in neatly with the tiny little guy, the grin somehow wider now. "I'm with Jean. Let's be baby thieves," he teased.

"Just remember: I can  _and will_ hunt you down and end you," K warned with a little growl she hadn't exactly meant to use.

"Oooh, I felt that in my tummy," Katie said, her eyes wide.

"Mom can make the lions at the circus go the other way when she growls," Clint said, leaning forward excitedly. "It's  _so_ cool."

"I wanna do that!" Katie said.

"You gotta have a mutant power first," Clint said.

"I want one'a those!"

"You're not big enough."

"Yes I am!"

"Nuh-uh! You have to be big enough to kiss boys!" Clint said.

"Yeah, you gotta be even bigger than me, Katie," Susie put in. "My dad told me all about the DNA stuff inside people! It's really cool!"

"You just like all the science stuff because your dad does science," Katie said, sticking her tongue out at her sister again.

"Yeah, because it's cool!" Susie insisted.

"You're weird."

"I thought you said that was a good thing!"

Katie stuck her tongue out again, and Susie rolled her eyes — until Rachel said, "No tongue sticking," and that got Susie snickering.

"You two are sure you want a couple dozen?" K teased as Scott handed James back; he'd finally woken up and started staring at Scott almost accusingly.

"We're already halfway to a half-dozen…" Scott said — and laughed when Jean smacked him with the back of her hand.

"So you'll be carrying the other half of the half-dozen?" K asked brightly. "I look forward to that secondary mutation."

Jean rolled her eyes. "Don't even joke. I told him I wanted more after you  _doubled_ your family — and I got  _twins_. We're staying away from all jokes. Ever."

"But … not if he's gotta carry 'em," K said, looking disappointed.

Jean shook her head. "No, no. Somehow, this teasing will come back to me. And I'm still recovering from nine months of sibling fights in my own stomach. No."

"Spoilsport," K said, though she caught the look James was  _still_ giving Scott. "Oh look. Genetics."

Scott smirked. "Somehow, I'm not surprised."

"He's a silly baby," Rachel informed them all, grinning up at K and putting her whole hand over her mouth to blow K a kiss. "You made a silly baby!"

"Looks pretty serious to me," K said.

"Nope. He's bein' silly to Dad," Rachel said. "I love him!"

"I'm glad to hear it," K said as she finally put her legs over the edge of the bed and got to her feet. "But … if no one wants to fight me over it, I think I want to go to my own bed."

"Only if we can hug you and James there too!" Katie insisted. "I'm not done huggin' my brother!"

"No reason not to," Logan said. "She's all healed up now."

K turned to Jean and gave her a falsely wide grin. "Again: Sorry about that."

"Even more reason to be jealous," Jean sang her way.

"I'd tell you I can't fit into my jeans right," K said. "But … it's an overcorrection, and I need a belt."

"Oh. No." Jean shook her head. "No. No. That's unacceptable."

"Oops!" K laughed. "That's just how it is, I guess."

Scott started to laugh as he snagged Jean around the waist with his free hand. "Come on, Mrs. Summers. You can rage about dress sizes while we put the kids down for a nap."

"We can share the elevator — unless you have plans otherwise," K said as the kids started to swarm both of them.

Barney smirked up at K. "Yeah. To work off the baby weight."

"Hey now," she said, tipping his chin up with her free hand. "No. They don't need your circus primer of what not to do on the flying trapeze."

Barney turned a brilliant red. "I don't—"

"You turned him into a tomato," Clint giggled delightedly.

"Barney, can you give Katie a piggyback ride? I'm going to have Logan take James for me," K said, smirking as Barney gave Clint a little look and crouched down so Katie could reach better.

"You tired, Mom?" Clint asked, ignoring Barney's look entirely.

"Yeah," K said, nodding as she handed James off. "And a little dizzy."

In a heartbeat, Clint was right there like he'd been when she'd been drugged by Sinister. "Okay, Mom. I gotcha."

K couldn't help but smile and give him a kiss on the cheek. "Love you too."


	2. No One Wants the Flu

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Clint is a special little guy... he just doesn't know how special yet.

 

* * *

It was flu season around the school, and while that meant K and Jean both were trying to keep the newborns away from the kids, somehow, it wasn't  _quite_ enough to keep things from spreading all the same.

Susie was the first of the Bishop girls to catch it, but almost as soon as Susie had gone from sneezing to the tossing-her-cookies stage of the bug, Katie had it too — which meant Hank and Logan were very busy with their respective girls asking for their dads to help them whenever they had to throw up again.

And then Barney got it… then Rachel came down with it… it was just a matter of the fact that Jean and K had taken the very-new babies to a totally different wing and more or less kicked everyone else out that kept them from the flu bug. It really was bad this year.

Clint tried to help as much as he could. Even though he was  _super_ grossed out, he could help with the non-puke parts of stuff. Like getting water and some crackers when the kids who were sick felt well enough to try and keep some down. Or sitting with Katie when she was just so miserable she started to cry and then felt worse because she got too snotty to breathe.

He was just headed downstairs to fill up several more water bottles when he ran into Hank headed up to check on his many patients — especially the little ones — and gave Hank a little smile. "Hey, Dr. Blue. Need any help?"

Hank smiled at Clint. "I see you're already doing your part, young man."

Clint nodded. "No one's feeling very good," he explained. "But I'm not puking, so… I'm getting water and crackers."

"A sensible arrangement," Hank couldn't help but laugh.

"Katie thinks she's  _dying_ ," Clint said, rolling his eyes. "She's so  _dramatic_."

Hank chuckled and shook his head. "She's too young to remember ever being this sick. I'm sure, to her, this is the worst she can ever remember feeling."

"Okay, that's true, I guess," Clint allowed.

"And how are you feeling?" Hank asked, waiting for Clint to fill up his water bottles so they could set about their task together. After all, he knew Clint still had a bit of an aversion to doctors, but if they spent some time taking care of his siblings, Hank hoped he could see the  _good_ side of medicine — helping others to feel better.

"I'm fine," Clint promised. "I don't have any sniffles, even. I guess it's 'cause I got the flu, like,  _three_ times last year, so the universe decided to give me a break," he joked.

Hank couldn't help but chuckle. "Ah, yes. Very scientific."

"Yeah, but I like it," Clint said, grinning up at him as he screwed the cap back on the last water bottle and the two of them headed up together.

Hank chuckled at that as he came upstairs to where Logan had Katie on his stomach as she curled up and miserable. Scott was close by with Rachel similarly pale and gross, while Barney clearly just wanted to be left alone. "My good assistant Mr. Barton has the water I assume you all asked for," Hank announced as he came in.

Barney waved Clint over. "I like having my own water boy."

"Oh, shut up, Barney, or I'll dump it on you," Clint warned.

"Oh, but you're such a great  _nursemaid_ …"

"Oops," Clint deadpanned as he dumped the entire water bottle into Barney's lap.

Rachel giggled from where she was tucked into Scott's arms. "You got wet."

"He sure did," Clint said, shooting a grin Rachel's way before he brought over her sippy cup of water.

"You know you have to refill that now, right?" Barney pointed out. "Seeing as I can't even sit up without almost passing out."

"Yeah, yeah," Clint said, waving his hand at Barney. "I'll get to you, princess."

"I'll puke all over you," Barney warned.

"Oh, I didn't know you could do it on command!"

"Shut up, Clint."

"Make me," Clint said, sticking his tongue out from  _way_ on the other side of the room.

"Boys," Logan said in a low tone. "Give it a rest."

"He started it," Clint argued. "I'm just trying to help and he's treating me like his personal servant!"

"Because you  _are_ ," Barney insisted.

"If you catch it, he'll return the favor," Logan said. "So watch the kind of crap you pull."

Clint grinned easily and held his hands up. "Hey, I've been alright so far. Don't even have the sniffles, and I've been around  _all_ the sickos this whole time." He smiled at Hank. "I told Dr. Blue it's because I had the flu three times last year, and the universe decided to give me a break."

Susie wrinkled her nose at that. "That's not how being sick  _works_. My Blue said it's 'cause of tiny things that get inside you!"

Hank nodded with a little smile Susie's way. "That's right. Tiny, microscopic bacteria and viruses that invade your body." He ran a hand over her head. "That fever is your body trying to burn them out. You're having quite the fight in there," he added as he tapped the very end of her nose — but lightly, since she was still miserable.

"Can't we let the boys do the battling?" Susie asked in a sigh. "I don't wanna."

"No," Katie mumbled, still curled into Logan. "Inna be a hero too."

"Don't worry, Katie; we won't leave you behind," Clint promised.

"Okay," she said, putting her head back down as she drifted off to sleep again. She had come down with it early, and she was finally starting to come out the other end — but that also meant that she was, frankly,  _exhausted_  and didn't want to move much.

The kids weren't much for talking, so once Hank had finished checking them all over and making sure that they were as comfortable as it was possible to be, he left them mostly to their own devices, though he did ask Logan once Katie was asleep again if he could talk to him, assigning Clint to help Scott look after all the younger kids and  _try_ not to get into too much trouble with Barney, if he could.

Once they were out of earshot, Hank took a deep breath and turned to Logan, who still had a sleeping little girl in his arms even in the hallway. "I think it's possible Clint may be coming into his mutation," he explained. "But it's not… quite clear. He still has a bruise from last week, and he has that proclivity for bandages..."

"I thought you said he wasn't a mutant," Logan said.

"I said he wasn't a mutant," Hank said slowly, "not that he doesn't have an X-gene. I admit, I didn't see it until after Mr. Sinister's studies, but…."

"But it's in the wrong spot to be active, isn't it?" Logan asked, then looked entirely unamused when Hank looked surprised at his answer. "I do pay attention."

Hank smirked at that and then nodded. "Well, that was what I'd assumed initially, but there is  _something,_ perhaps a muted expression of the gene…" He let out a sigh and leveled with Logan. "To be honest, I wouldn't have even considered it, but Clint  _did_ mention Sinister's surprise and interest when he was awake sooner than the others…"

"You think he did something to him?"

"I think either he did something or the X-gene is expressing sporadically," Hank said. "I'm not sure. This is the first case like this I've seen, and I'm not entirely clear on what might be natural for his… condition."

"So what do you think he's doin', Hank? Healin'?"

"In some degree, yes," Hank admitted. "He still gets injured, but he's yet to have an infection, any little cold, for months now, and this is by far one of the worst flu seasons we've seen."

"What are the chances that he'd have a healin' mutation and be adopted by a healer before that was expressed?" Logan's tone was entirely unamused.

"I know," Hank said. "That's why I wanted to speak with you about it. And yet if Mr. Sinister  _did_ change something, I would, to be frank, expect more… dramatic results. Not to mention Clint would have needed far more attention after his last visit, medically speaking. That is  _not_ a simple operation."

"So either he's doin' somethin' on his own, got a boost from Sinister, or Sinister  _tried_ to do somethin' and screwed it up," Logan summarized.

Hank nodded. "And of all of those options, I think we can be sure this is  _not_ the last of Mr. Sinister's interest in Clint."

"Uh-huh," Logan agreed quietly as Katie shifted in her sleep. "Not exactly surprised."

"Neither am I, though I am disappointed," Hank said. "And angry, of course. If I had my way, that excuse for a doctor would never see another lab again."

"Pretty sure we're fightin' an uphill battle there, Hank."

"I'm well-aware," Hank said, then took off his glasses for a moment to wipe them off. "Now, I may be wrong. It may simply be that Clint has had an extraordinary run of luck lately. But if you and K could both keep an eye on him…"

"Always do," Logan said quietly a moment before Katie finally opened her eyes with a little frown for Hank.

Hank smiled and gently ruffled Katie's hair. "Am I interrupting time with your father?" he teased, chuckling more when she nodded and buried herself back into Logan. "Well, then. It seems I'm dismissed."

Katie giggled but didn't pick her head back up until Hank was gone, and then she smiled up at Logan. "Hi!" she said brightly, just to prove she'd been waiting for alone time.

"Hey," Logan said. "You look like you're feelin' better."

Katie nodded. "I'm really hungry," she said. "Like there's nothin' in my tummy."

"There's probably not," Logan agreed. "Feel like tryin' some crackers first or you wanna go for broke?"

"I want cookies," Katie said, giving Logan her best doe eyes.

"Don't know where that falls on the scale," he said. "But if you get sick, get one of the boys."

"Imma get Clint," Katie said with a troublemaking look. "Since Barney's already sick."

"And Clint dumped a bottle of water on 'im," Logan said.

But at that, Katie started to giggle. "Uh-huh. It was really funny," she said. "His eyes got so  _big_!"

"Pretty sure it was cold, too."

"Uh-huh and he put it in his lap," Katie giggled.

"That's really not nice," Logan told her as he started to carry her down the hall.

Katie leaned forward. "Mom says that's where you can hurt mean boys," she said seriously.

"Yeah,  _mean_ boys, not just pickin' at your brothers."

"Well…." Katie tipped her head to the side. "Yeah. So are you gonna get 'im in trouble?"

"Nope," Logan said, shaking his head lightly. "They'll figure it out between 'em."

"I dunno," Katie said as she snuggled into him. "Mom says boys're slow and that's how come Barney doesn't know Susie likes him."

Logan smirked at that and readjusted how she was settled in. "Some of 'em are slow. Not all of 'em."

"I dunno," Katie said, one eye closed. "I think Mr. Forge is  _real_ slow 'cause Miss Storm keeps giving him gooey faces and he's just…" She gave Logan a look. "Miss Jean says she  _knows_ they're in love so it's stupid they're not in love!"

"He's not slow," Logan said. "He's just not ready to make a production out of it."

Katie rolled her eyes. "When  _I_ get big, I'm gonna find my K and be like you and just carry 'em off!"

"You're gonna carry them off?" Logan asked with one eyebrow raised before he reached up and squeezed her upper arm. "Better start workin' out."

Katie giggled and shook her head at him. "I'm little right  _now_ ," she said. "But not when I'm bigger!"

"You think I got this strong overnight?" Logan asked with a smirk.

"Maaaaaybe," Katie giggled, then yawned and giggled at herself. "I'm still tired," she said, laying her head back down. "I got real sick."

"You sure did," Logan agreed, wrapping an arm around her back to give her a little hug before they got to the kitchen.


	3. Where's Clint?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which K goes full on Mama Bear.

 

* * *

Everyone was  _finally_ starting to feel a little better, even if there were still a few sniffles and plenty of long, long naps to go around. But as soon as Rachel had started to feel better, she wanted to be around her mom, and since Clint was still trying to help (proudly crowing about how he'd survived the flu-pocalypse), he had come upstairs with some snacks for everyone.

By that time, the Summers twins were asleep, though James was watching everything like he was trying to process it all, and Clint grinned as he climbed up between Jean and K — with Rachel tucked into Jean's other side. "Hey, James," he said cheerfully. "I brought some popcorn and stuff, but you can't have it yet. sorry."

"Pretty sure he'll live," K said. "How are you feeling, handsome?" She shifted how she was holding James so she could reach up to run her hand through his hair.

"Kinda worn out," Clint admitted. "Even some of the adults were sick, so there weren't a lot of people who could help."

"You sure you don't want to be a doctor or something?" K teased. "You can give unruly patient shots the fun way."

Clint laughed and shook his head. "Nah, I'd rather be an Avenger."

"Doctor Avenger …"

"Yeah but I just want to be a hero, not a doctor," Clint insisted.

"Alright. Nurse Avenger."

"Moo-o-o-om."

"I'm teasing, you know that, right?"

"I dunno; I'm getting older, and I've only got two and a half years before I can be on the junior team."

Jean chuckled. "He says, after only a few months of being ten," she whispered to K.

"He … is going places, and he knows it," K defended.

Clint nodded. "Uh-huh. Sure do," he said. "And being thirteen is taking so  _long_!"

"And the day he turns thirteen, he'll be counting down to sixteen so he can drive," K said.

Clint grinned. "Yeah, that will be pretty great!"

Rachel giggled. "Clint's funny," she said.

"He is sometimes, isn't he?" Jean laughed, booping Rachel on the nose.

"So…" Clint glanced up at K. "I got a movie. It's Indiana Jones, but it might be too scary for Rachel…"

"So what? You want me to venture out with James and leave poor Jean alone with her own kids?" K said. "What kind of monster do you think I am?"

Clint giggled at that. "She's gonna have to get used to it sooner or later."

"Oh, never," Jean said with a laugh.

"Yeah, I think you're being optimistic," K said. "What do you suggest, good Sir Quackers?"

"Mom, I told you I want to be  _Hawkeye_ ," Clint said, rolling his eyes.

"Well … do big hawks have the smaller hawks following them around in a line?" K asked him, again, playing with his hair while James snuggled in on her shoulder. .

"Well, maybe if they're baby hawks…."

"Quack, quack," Rachel said — not at all helping.

Clint let out a sigh of longsuffering. "Mom, I blame you."

Rachel giggled. "It's okay. You're a duck."

"Mo-o-o-o-o-m!"

"I didn't say it," K defended.

"You  _taught_ it to her," Clint argued.

"Want me to teach her something else?" K asked with one eyebrow raised.

"Yeah, teach her  _Hawkeye!_ "

But by that time, Rachel started giggling. "Quack, quack, quack, quack," she sang out.

"Quack, quack, quack —  _screeeeeeeech_ ," K said, doing a fair hawk call that had Rachel falling over sideways laughing, not that Jean was far behind her.

Clint was trying to look affronted and not at all like he was laughing. "Mom!"

"Duck Hawk! Duck Hawk! Duck Hawk!" Rachel giggled.

Clint shook his head at that. "Let's just watch the movie, okay?"

K reached over to drape her arm around his shoulders and pull him over just so she could kiss his cheek and then very quietly — just so he could hear her — started making more hawk noises.

Clint was making dramatic faces and groaning noises — which really wasn't helping his case when it got Rachel giggling and then Nate woke up and started to let out little happy screechy sounds that Rachel insisted were also hawk sounds….

It meant that Rachel was also too distracted to be scared of the movie, too, so that was a good way to approach the little impromptu movie night.

Eventually, around the time they were at the "gross kissing part" that Clint hated, the teasing calmed down, and Rachel got distracted playing with her little siblings, bringing them some toys and dropping them in the crib in case they wanted to play with them.

Clint came and snuggled into his mom, since James was asleep now. "She's tryin' to be a good big sister," he said tiredly, pulling a blanket over his shoulders.

"She learned that from you, you know," K told him before she kissed his forehead.

"I try to be a good big brother," Clint agreed, snuggling in before he let out a yawn and decided to go ahead and go to sleep, since he really had been working hard this whole time.

It wasn't long before the others started to drift off, too. It really was comfortable all curled up, and Rachel still needed plenty of snuggled when she hadn't been feeling good recently.

And it honestly  _felt_ like they had just drifted off, so when Jean and K woke up and K could taste the remnants of gas in her mouth and the kids were all still out...

"Jean," K muttered as she started to rouse.

"Make Scott get whoever's awake," Jean muttered, still not quite with it herself.

"You get Scott," K said. "You're the one with the direct connection."

"Right," Jean said sleepily, shifting a little to kiss Rachel's forehead before she looked around. "What… what happened anyway?"

K shook her head and began to look around the room before she called out for Clint — and then sat up, looking more upset. "Where's Clint?"

That finally got Jean to sit up faster, though she frowned when she realized there was a note in her hand. She looked down at it before she narrowed her eyes and handed it to K, pushing herself to her feet. "I don't know, but if the professor can look on Cerebro…"

K frowned, especially when she read the note, written in precise, elegant handwriting: "The little ones are still too small for my tastes. Take better care of them, Scott."

"Can you get your sweetheart and mine?" K asked as she got to her feet.

"I'm reaching out right now," Jean promised. "They were with Kurt in the Danger Room."

"And Kitty and Jubes," K said. "I need someone more awake to take James for a little bit."

"I'll let the professor know and we'll get the team involved," Jean said. "You know they're all going to want to help wherever they can." She paused and smiled. "Besides, Ororo will take care of her godkids," she said, gesturing to the twins. "I'm coming with you."

"Then maybe I should call in someone, too," K said. "Aside from just 'the team'."

"You know Jan would come in a heartbeat."

"That's what I was thinking," K said. "She has baby fever …"

"Then you'd think she would move faster on getting Tony to step up his game," Jean said with a faint smile.

"I don't think it's smart to rush him," K said, honestly defending him. "Let him come to it on his own."

"Oh, if I must," Jean said, and though her tone was light, it was obvious she was talking to her clearly upset husband when she paused and, a moment later, Scott got there looking furious.

"Are you alright?" he asked, picking Rachel up to look her over for himself, frowning at the fact that Rachel had a bandage on her finger and the twins and James each had one on their heels.

" _We're_ alright — aside from being annoyed at Sinister's stupid 'check-in's," Jean said.

"He took Clint," K said, clearly upset as she kept a solid hold on James, waiting for the back up babysitters to show.

Scott narrowed his eyes at that. "The professor's looking right now," he promised, though he was more frustrated than he let on. "We didn't know he was here…"

"I'm coming," Jean said firmly. "I want to tear his mind apart, make him forget he ever saw the kids…"

"Jean—"

"Tell me I'm wrong," Jean shot back, tipping her chin up. "You know I'm not."

Scott shook his head, not willing to argue the point when he was ready to tear into Sinister himself, though for the moment, they couldn't  _do_ anything but wait until Charles had a location.

"If you need motivation," K said as she walked toward Scott. "You can have this. It's for you, after all." With that, K handed Scott the note.

Scott didn't say anything as he took the note, but K could see his face go a particular shade of ashen before it changed to an angrier one as he crumpled the note up in his hand. "Not taking parenting advice from  _him_ ," he said through his teeth before he simply spun on his heel, still carrying Rachel. "We're ending this."

* * *

As for Clint, he was having a serious panic attack.

The last thing he remembered, he'd been asleep with his mom and everyone all curled up, and then when he'd woken up, he was somewhere else entirely, stuck in a room with a door that had the hinges on the other side.

And that, at least, was something to help him from going all the way over the edge into a panic he couldn't pull back from, even though he was  _by himself_ and  _trapped_ and  _terrified_. But after a second, he did, very quietly, mutter out a little, "Looks like he learned from last time," and tried to look smug in case the creep showed up.

He kept his hands up in a defensive stance when the door did finally open, but that just seemed to entertain Sinister when he walked in. "Really, there's no need for violence," he said. "Of course, given your adoptive father's proclivities… I really shouldn't be surprised."

Clint narrowed his eyes at that, though he kept his hands up. "He taught me how to deal with supervillains," he insisted. "Bullies that think their powers mean they can do whatever they want…"

Sinister waved a hand at that. "You really do have such a simple view of the world, Mr. Barton."

"Just because I don't think grabbing people is okay, you think I'm stupid," Clint said, shaking his head. "But I'm not."

"That statement in itself is redactive," Sinister said, shaking his head before he reached out to  _make_ Clint put his hands down by his sides and then came to put a hand on his shoulder, bending slightly to look him in the eye. "Now then… how long, precisely, have you been healing?"

Clint blinked at him. "I don't…." His hand went unconsciously to his elbow, where he still had a scab from sliding on the floor when he and Barney had roughhoused too much. "I don't?"

"Don't be so dense, boy," Sinister said in a tone that said he was losing patience. "It may not be as dramatic as your mother's, but I know a healing ability when I see one. How long have you been resistant to drugs, to disease? You're just beginning…. Even with Logan, I was only able to study him when he was already a young man…"

"I  _don't_ heal," Clint insisted, rolling up his sleeve to show Sinister the bruise there — this time from sword fighting with Kurt. "I'm just… I dunno. I'm normal. I  _am_."

Sinister shook his head. "Mr. Barton. If you're as intelligent as you say you are, then you know better than that. Now…" He stood up straighter. "I can simply take it from your memories or you can cooperate. I'd rather not do you too much damage when you're only just beginning…"

Clint bit his lip and shook his head. "The only one that thinks I'm different is you," he said. "I just — I didn't do anything except wake up fast because I was  _scared_."

Sinister narrowed his eyes at Clint for a long time before he let out a little noise and turned on his heel. "Come along, Mr. Barton. It's time to see just what your abilities hold for you."

"I don't  _have_ any," Clint insisted, crossing his arms — though the next thing he knew, he was walking along anyway. "Stop that!"

Sinister didn't pay him too much attention until he had Clint seated in his lab and was looking him over before he gently slipped a needle into his arm. "This should help you to calm down," he said, though his tone turned almost clinical. "As long as it lasts, of course."

Clint narrowed his eyes, though he was starting to relax despite his best efforts. "Lemme 'lone," he said softly.

Sinister smirked but didn't say anything further than that as he laid Clint flat and ran a few tests, taking a little more blood before, very gently, enough so that Clint didn't even notice it when he was sedated, he cut a fine line in Clint's palm and frowned to himself. He'd only given Clint a small dose of sedative, and it was already wearing off, albeit not  _nearly_ at the rate his parents would heal… but even minor injuries weren't healing.

"I wonder," he said to himself as Clint started to frown and shake his head, "if your genes were better structured… if you would have more than this…  _minor_ expression…." He shook his head to himself. "But then you would simply be the same as the others…" Narrowing his eyes, he put a hand on either side of Clint's head and then dove deeper, looking not just at his memories of his adoptive family but  _deeper_ , looking at the boy's life as a whole.

He had to frown at what he saw: the constant need for medical intervention… the abuse and neglect… it was a wonder the boy hadn't come into his powers much earlier from trauma alone… But then, at that stage of development in his life, so early on when a young body was making such  _crucial_ gains… Sinister shook his head to himself as he came out of Clint's mind — while Clint was also coming out of his sedation.

"Your father did me no favors," Sinister said, tutting and shaking his head. "He had no idea what a unique child he had…"

"Leave my dad alone," Clint said tiredly

"Your biological father, boy," Sinister said, shaking his head again. "I assure you, had I known… you would not have been so misused in  _my_ care."

"Ummm." Clint shook his head. "I got a dad. So… no."

Sinister smirked and stepped back. "You certainly aren't as powerful as you could be," he said. "And yet I wonder if I can increase your potential without making you  _common_ … I would have to see the difference in how you express the same power, but with a little time…"

"Are you gonna keep talking to yourself, because I can go home and you can do that anywhere…" Clint pointed out.

"Of course," Sinister replied as he approached with a needle and syringe, "I'm not finished yet, and there's no reason for you to be suffering any undue stress while I work."

Clint frowned and cringed away, but after a minute, he started to relax, and Sinister went back to work, frowning to himself as he considered which of his many options he preferred as a means by which to approach this new puzzle. He was, of course, disappointed with the simple, small power… but on the other hand, this was such a  _new_ development, a genetic mutation he had never seen before. His interest in finding only the best for mutantkind warred with his scientific curiosity, even as he took the liberty of a few more extensive samples, short of actually cutting into him, of course. He did still want to establish some trust… if only because he had a feeling he would need more  _time_ with the boy, and he seemed to have some sway with the Summers children…

He was entirely focused on his study of Clint when, out of nowhere, he heard what  _sounded_ like a few very soft footfalls an instant before a  _snikt_ rang in the air and K sliced into the back of his legs where he stood, just above both knees. The cut was deep enough and precise enough that the tendons at the back of his legs were all sliced through — dropping Sinister in his tracks.

He let out a shout of surprise and anger, but when he tried to stop K and freeze her in place, he was met with Jean's telepathic rage as she pushed him into his own mind and kept him there, her own mental signature blazing with fire she was just keeping back.

Which was of course all K needed to reach up and slice through the restraints holding Clint down — and then go back to task making Sinister suffer as much as she could.

And while K was working off her anger and worry, Scott picked Clint up, since he was still a little out of it. "Come on," he told Clint gently, "let's get you out of here."

Which was honestly well accented when K positively snarled in Sinister's face when he tried to  _reason_ with her: "You don't even understand what you  _have_ ," he was saying. "The first of his kind — a special case — he needs a guiding hand-"

With a swipe, K sliced off both of Sinisters hands as he raised them. He clearly knew he was going to lose more than just his research at this rate, so in a desperate move, he reached out to Jean's telepathic presence and let her see some of what he'd been looking at in Clint's mind — the worst of the abuse the boy had endured, when he'd been deafened and humiliated and scared. He knew it would be enough to distracted her when she was so  _invested_ and emotional over the boy — and that moment of distraction was all he needed to leave his body before K could end it.

There was just a bit of fire flickering at the edges of Jean's eyes and hair as she  _tried_ to calm back down, though it wasn't until she saw that Scott had Clint that she even began to get control of it. "I'm sorry, he—" Jean took a deep breath. "I had him until he sent Clint's memories my way."

"He did  _what_?" K said, spinning toward Jean and looking somehow even more incensed.

Jean nodded, the fire starting to burn again. "When he went deaf…"

"He had  _no business_  …" K ground out from between clenched teeth.

"That's what he does," Scott said shortly.

K seemed to be working  _very hard_ on getting herself under control at that though. "He did that to you too?" She was flexing her fingers, and Scott could hear her knuckles cracking from where he was standing.

"What, get in my head? Experiment? It's just what he  _does_ ," Scott said.

"Not for long," K growled out before she looked toward Jean. "I know he left before I ended him. He went limp before I could hit him right."

Jean let out a breath. "I'm sorry. If I hadn't gotten distracted—"

"I won't go slow next time," K said. "I'll just take off his head."

"That would do it," Jean said, though she didn't bother pretending not to be shocked.

"Let's just get Clint home," Scott said, frowning between them.

K snatched a towel from a nearby counter and made her way over to clean up at the sink there, totally ignoring the look Scott was giving her in favor of cleaning up enough to curl up with Clint on the way back.

By that time, he was starting to wake up a little more, too, and he leaned into K once they were on the blackbird. "Hi, Mom…"

"Hush, sweetheart," K said gently. "Just relax. We're headed back now."

"You get got to?" he asked in a whisper.

"No, I got him," K told him, then to be sure he was able to understand her, she signed it out where he could see it too. "At least mostly."

Clint nodded and then hugged her a little tighter. "He thinks I'm like you," he said softly. "But if I was, my ear would be better…"

"He thinks he's a doctor too," K replied.

Clint smiled at that and held up his hand, where there was still a little red line. "I don't heal."

"You do, just not as fast as me," K said then started to gently run her hand through his hair.

"What?" Clint wrinkled his nose. "You can't  _agree_ with him!"

"No," K said with a little smile. "Everyone heals. Then there's me and Logan …"

"Oh." Clint nodded slowly. "I didn't think of it that way."

"That's okay; you will," K replied, snuggling in a little more. "What can I do for you to fix you up?"

"I dunno," Clint admitted. "I don't really know ... I got pretty fuzzy a few times, but I'm feeling better now. I mean… ice cream? You  _did_ make the bad guy run away…"

"I did," she said. "But Jean did the hard part." She leaned closer so he could see her dramatic expression. "She held him down while I beat him up."

Clint smirked and glanced up at Jean. "Her hair's on fire again."

"It does that," Scott said, earning an affectionate huff from Jean.

"Only when someone really makes me mad," Jean said as she sat down by K and Clint while Scott got them home. "And knowing he wanted to keep you?" She shook her head. "That was definitely enough to make me mad."

Clint shook his head. "I wish he wouldn't," he muttered. "I don't even  _do_ anything special."

"I'll be he wishes he hadn't right now," K muttered.

Jean smirked her way. "Very likely." She reached out to ruffle Clint's hair. "He should know better than to make your mom mad."

"Yeah, he screwed up," Clint agreed with a quiet smirk before he leaned back into K, not necessarily tired anymore but feeling … off. He didn't like feeling like he was under the microscope like that, and he really didn't want any more attention, either.

 _I checked to see if he changed anything,_ Jean projected to K after a moment.  _He was just looking around; Clint shouldn't be any worse for the wear. He looked at every memory he could to get a sense of why Clint might not be as powerful as he hoped._ She paused.  _The one and only time Sinister and I agree on something? Apparently, he was mad at Clint's father for … more or less stunting his growth early on._

 _Still not impressed_. K was working her jaw slowly, grinding her teeth as she thought it over.  _Unacceptable to get into a kid's mind uninvited._

 _I wasn't saying I agreed with anything but his assessment of Harold Barton,_ Jean clarified.

 _I know,_  K replied.  _I'm still mad, that's all. He touched my little boys._

 _And Nate and my girls,_ Jean agreed, the anger still apparent in her tone.

 _And Logan and Scott,_  K continued.

_He's gotten his hands on everyone in the team at some point or another._

_I'm not having it._ It was clear K was right on the edge of keeping her temper under wraps.

 _If you think_ I'm  _rolling over..._

_No. I know you're not, but you've also tried to live by a code that I don't. I don't care about getting my hands dirty._

_K, you should know… that code doesn't apply to Sinister. There are_ very  _few exceptions, but he's one of them. And he has been ever since I talked Scott into making that exception a little after we first met him._

_Be that as it may, there is still a difference between making the exception and acting on it. Don't do anything you haven't done before. You don't need to live with it._

Jean gave her a troublemaking smile.  _We spent all that time curled up together while our boys were dealing with sick kids and you didn't get that I've already done that? I still have the Phoenix Force inside me, you know._

 _To someone who's haunted you that much?_ K challenged.  _I'm not arguing what the Phoenix has done. I can see the separation between you and it. It's different._

 _We'll just see what happens,_ Jean said at last.  _I don't think I can promise anything to you or Scott if this keeps up, especially if he moves beyond just 'check ups' for our_ little  _ones. That happens and Scott will probably help you bore a hole in him by himself._

_I've never had so much interference with idiots before I met you people …_

_Says the girl who was caught up in a weapons program._

_At least it wasn't a weapons program_ and  _every single moron trying to make a name for themselves too._

 _That's what happens when you stand up for what's right. You tend to get in the way of worse things than staying off to the sidelines,_ Jean said, sighing out her breath.

K turned her way and gave her a dry look.  _Yeah. I've been real involved._

 _More than you realize,_ Jean said, reaching over to squeeze her arm.  _Welcome to the X-Men. We hope you survive the experience._


	4. Special Little Hawk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Clint gets home and needs the big brother treatment.

 

* * *

When the little rescue team got back to Westchester, Clint was still holding pretty tightly to K, almost using her as a shield between himself and any concerned parties. He felt … embarrassed, really. He was the only one that had been missing, and it was the first time it had been for any reason outside of being caught up in his parents' problems or the team's problems… It felt different when it was about  _him_.

But he knew he really did need to get looked over, especially since, well, he'd been fuzzy for a lot of it and he did actually want to know what that guy had done, and he knew his parents would also feel better if they knew what they were looking at too…

But he was  _also_ glad that Logan wasn't one of those hovering parents like Jean was. Clint could tell he was worried from the look on his face, but instead of asking a lot of questions or anything, he just stuck close to Clint while they were in the lab.

"Well, whatever was in that injection is at least gone from your system," Hank said when he'd looked Clint over and run a few tests. "But I would like you to spend a little time with an IV pole all the same. Aside from a few minor cuts, you do seem to have, unfortunately, the same malady as almost anyone he deals with, and you'll need to recover your volume and strength."

"English, Dr. Blue," Clint muttered.

"He don't know what's up, but he wants you to stick around and let him poke at you while you get an IV," Logan said.

Clint glanced at both of his parents and then pushed out his lower lip before he nodded. "Alright, but… I don't want to see it when you put it in…"

"Then why don't you talk to your father for a moment. Face the opposite way," Hank suggested, which just had Clint nodding and trying not to look like he was freaked out as he looked at Logan.

"Um… hi."

"Hey," Logan said, holding his gaze but not doing anything to rile him either way.

"So, um…" Clint held his breath for a second as Hank turned his arm over. "Um… could you sign a permission slip that says I ain't a healer so I can get out of all future creepy field trips?"

"Sure. Just show me where the dotted line is," Logan said, smirking.

Clint smiled and relaxed a little — though he sucked in a breath when the line went in and didn't look at it, still freaked out and trying not to show it. "I'm not, though, right?" he asked after a second. "Because… because if I was, I think I'd know."

"No, you're not a healer like your parents are," Hank said. "If you were, you wouldn't have so many bangs and scrapes."

"That's what I thought," Clint said. "And I tried to tell him that, but he didn't believe me."

"Because he's a moron," K said, which got a little snerk out of Clint.

"Yeah. I'd know, like I said," Clint said. "He's just mad I'm not like you even though you're my mom, I think."

"I think we're all a little jealous of your mother," Hank teased lightly.

"Didn't know you wanted to snuggle Logan so much," K deadpanned.

Clint giggled at the look on Hank's face. "She got you there."

K let out a sigh and watched Clint for a long while. "The thing is," she said slowly. "Jean tore into his mind when we went in there — and while I was working him over, she found out what exactly he was doing … and thinking … the whole nine yards."

Clint made a face. "That sounds really gross and she should take a telepathic shower."

"I'm sure she should," K agreed. "But … here's the thing. He … is probably going to be a pain for you, too."

Clint frowned at that. "Why? I told him I'm not special."

"Yeah, you really are," K said. "But not in an 'I'm your mom and I think you're unique' … in a 'you really are one in ten billion' kind of way."

"That still sounds like an 'I'm your mom and I think you're unique' thing," Clint teased.

K smirked at that and gave him a little one-armed hug. "Well, this time, it seems like science is on my side, so don't doubt me and how right I am on anything else," she teased. "There is something different about you that he found, and I hate to say it, but the creep is fascinated." She tipped her head. "Hopefully, I made him think twice about how involved he wants to be in your life … but … we'll have to wait and see."

Clint tipped his head to the side. "Yeah, I mean… I know I've got weird genes, but that's really kind of it. I got 'em in the wrong place, so I'm weird. End of story, right?"

"If only it were that simple," K said in a breath as she thought about how to best explain it. "The truth is … he doesn't know why you're different or why it's a little off, but … it does give you something most people don't have. The way you burn through painkillers and sedatives … who knows what else…"

"So you think my superpower is that I can't get … high?" Clint said.

"That's probably an overstatement," K said. "But you just … I don't know. Maybe it's a higher metabolism or an incredibly efficient liver … but you don't process things normally. Which is fine. Normal's for slackers anyhow."

Clint smiled at her for that one, though it was obvious he was still a little shocked listening to what she had to say. "Well… huh. I guess I'm just… me?" He shrugged. "I don't know what to do about that, and I don't know how to make that guy  _not_ be interested when  _I'm_ kinda wondering what's up with me."

"There is a difference between curiosity and invasion," Hank said. "It's alright to be curious. If you like, I can help you with that if you want to discover more about your genetic potential." He shook his head, and though Clint didn't know it, Hank was barely biting back a growl. "What's not alright is to take a child from his mother and experiment on him. The ocean between those two approaches is  _vast_."

Clint finally turned to look at Hank with a quiet smirk. "He really makes you mad, huh?"

"Oh, more than I can say."

"Which is a lot since you like to use lots of words," Clint teased.

Hank chuckled at that. "Well then, in lieu of a long medical discussion, why don't I get a Twinkie — and then you can ask Logan how things went while he had Jan trying to steal his little boy out from under his nose."

Clint giggled and looked over at Logan. "She's totally baby-hungry," he said, nodding seriously.

"She really is," Logan agreed. "But she made him mad, and he didn't want anything to do with her after a little bit. The pout was pretty spectacular."

"Oooh, I bet it was dramatic. Did she just switch and try an' steal a Summers?"

"Steal Storm's godchildren from her? No one is brave enough for that," Hank chuckled under his breath.

Clint grinned at that. "Yeah. I like Storm," he agreed, shivering a bit as the IV started to run out, and Hank came over with a Twinkie to distract him while he removed the needle.

"Well, I see no reason to keep you here," he said.

"Wanna order a pizza and hide under the covers?" K asked.

Clint nodded fervently. "Yes. Definitely that."

* * *

Clint had been perfectly comfortable hiding with his mom for the last little while — so much so that he hadn't been keeping track of time and was totally taken off his guard when his big brother came in after class and simply climbed in on Clint's other side, taking a long moment to look his little brother over.

"I heard you got grabbed," Barney explained when Clint shot him such a look for getting in the middle of good snuggling and movies time.

"Yeah, it happens," Clint said in a sigh. "A lot. To me."

"It kinda does, doesn't it?" Barney said, shaking his head. "What the heck, Clint? I mean — what the heck?"

"I don't know," Clint defended. "It just… it's just like this!"

"Yeah, but this is different than when we were in the system and you were getting in people's faces and getting hit for it," Barney pointed out. "This is — this is supervillains and stuff that's way out of our league!"

"Out of  _your_ league, maybe," Clint said with a sniff. " _I'm_ gonna be an Avenger and an X-Man."

"He does have a life plan," K said with a little smirk before she reached over to steal a handful of popcorn from Clint.

At that, Clint grinned brilliantly at his mom. "Sure do."

"Yeah, but you're still ten," Barney pointed out. "I thought the deal was you had to be a teenager first!"

"Barney," K said gently. "You know just as well as anyone that your age doesn't make a difference to the worst kinds of people."

Barney let out a huff but leaned back against the headboard of the bed. "Yeah, well, it's my little brother this creep kidnapped, and I don't like it."

"Yeah, speaking as the one who got kidnapped, I'm not real thrilled either," Clint muttered.

"What did he even  _want_?" Barney asked.

Clint glanced up at K, though she gave him a look that said she was going to let him handle that question however he felt was best, so he let out a sigh and turned back to Barney. "You remember how I told you about my weird genes?"

Barney snorted out a little laugh. "Yeah, I remember. You couldn't pick a side, so you sat in the middle of the gene pool. That is just so you."

K couldn't hide her smirk at Barney's description, and Clint shot her a look before he shook his head. "Yeah, well, it's different, so that stupid not-a-doctor is… is  _interested_ ," he said, crossing his arms over his chest in an obvious attempt to look smaller. He  _really_ wasn't comfortable with this whole thing.

Barney narrowed his eyes at that. "So he  _kidnapped you_?"

"Yeah."

Barney shook his head and then turned to K. "So, you stabbed him, right?"

K again couldn't help but smirk at Barney's worldview — especially when he was so very right. "Absolutely," she promised. "And next time he shows up, I won't go so slow; I'll just take his head off," she added, knowing that, with those two boys, it was better to be frank and let them know how it was going to be — and the boys would feel safer for it, too.

"Good," Barney said with a sharp nod before he stole a handful of Clint's popcorn. "If I'd'a been there, I'd'a put my swords through him too."

"Believe me — everyone that came was ready to tear him apart," K said, this time with a hint of a growl in her tone that told the boys just how much she meant it.

"Good," Barney said again, just as sharply as the first time.

Clint couldn't help but smile at his big brother when he heard it. Barney had always been like that: he wanted people to know that Clint had a protector, and he'd always made a point of showing Clint how to stand up for himself. So Clint was glad that Barney stayed with them for part of the year — and he was glad that Barney happened to be around now. If Sinister had waited just a few more weeks, Barney wouldn't have been around to give Clint the full "big brother show," and there was something deeply comforting about that particular brand of Barney.

"I've got good backup," Clint promised his brother — since he was pretty sure Barney needed to hear it or he'd just keep getting worked up.

"Yeah, I know," Barney said, then reached over to pull Clint into a headlock. "Not as good as me, though, right?"

"Barney!" Clint let out a sound between a shout and a laugh as he tried to get out of his brother's hold.

"You know the rules, Clint," Barney said with a wicked grin. "You can't get out unless you tell the world I'm the best."

"Are not!"

Barney let out a sigh. "Oh, well, I guess you're just not getting out."

"Barney!"

"I guess I'm just stuck like this forever now," Barney said, still grinning wickedly even as he let out a pretended sigh of longsuffering. "I'll have to do everything one-handed with this stupid blond face sticking out of my armpit…"

"Barney!"

"People will be like, 'Barney, why do you have a second head?' and I'll have to tell them, 'My kid brother needs looking after and he's too stupid to recognize my awesomeness, so I had to take drastic action'..."

"Barney!"

"It'll make it harder to pick up chicks when you're hanging out under there, but I'll figure it out," Barney continued as if he couldn't hear Clint — until Clint finally managed to wriggle enough that he could reach Barney's side and tickle him to make him let go.

Barney let out a bark of a laugh and jumped back — releasing Clint with the motion. And the next second, Clint had jumped out of the covers, and the boys fell into a wrestling match right there on the floor of K and Logan's bedroom. Barney was bigger and had been in Logan's combat class while he was at school, but Clint had been learning dirty tricks from his mom and from Logan for much longer — and far more consistently. So there was no telling which of the Barton boys would come out on top of any given fight.

And while the boys were trying to outdo each other, the door opened, and Katie slipped in, sparing the wrestling match a glance before she wrinkled up her nose and then climbed up into the spot Clint had vacated to help herself to the popcorn. "They're bein'  _boys_ ," she told K, rolling her eyes hard.

"They sure are," K laughed, pulling Katie over to kiss the top of her head. "Why do you think they're like that?"

"Because they're boys," Katie said, as if it was the most obvious answer in the world. "Duh."

K laughed again, especially when Clint was the one to pin Barney this time and let out a whoop of triumph — along with his own demands that Barney admit that  _Clint_ was the best. "I hate to break it to you, Katie, but I don't think they're going to grow out of this anytime soon."

Katie tipped her head back dramatically. " _Why_."

"Because they're boys," K teased, tickling Katie's side.

When Katie had finished giggling, she wrapped herself partway around K in a hug. "It's okay," she told K seriously. "I like having brothers, even if they're weird."

"Oh, good," K said as she settled in with the little girl. "Because I don't think they're going anywhere. I like having them around too."


	5. Disaster at the Skating Rink

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which this little family somehow manages to find a way to run into even MORE trouble. They are super talented, y'all.

 

* * *

When the start of the circus season hit, the whole family (plus a few X-Men, particularly Kurt, who still loved the circus) made the trip to drop Barney off — and to let Miranda and Paul fawn over James, too.

And, as was becoming tradition, all of them — the circus family and the X-Men — went out to eat someplace that wasn't fried so Barney had "one last look at good food," to Clint's total amusement.

"Of course," Miranda said, holding Paul's hand under the table, "you'll have to come later in the season. Barney will be doing a solo act a little after his birthday." She grinned quietly. "Or somewhere around there. I don't think I'd pop back from giving birth  _quite_ fast enough to do all those shows."

"That's a shame; I'd like to see you do that with one on your hip," K said without missing a beat.

"That's what I said," Paul said just as quickly.

Miranda shoved Paul in the shoulder. "Oh, then you get to carry this baby. Thanks for volunteering."

"Not built that way, sweetheart," Paul said, getting Miranda to laugh again, even as Katie made her way over to them.

"So… you got a baby in you  _right now_?" Katie asked.

"Sure do," Miranda said, waving Katie over.

"I dunno," Katie said, peering closer. "When James was in his mommy's tummy, I could  _tell_."

"Our baby is still too small for you to see," Miranda laughed.

"Oh." Katie scrunched up her face. "Okay."

Paul smirked as he helped Miranda to her feet and then smiled at K. "We'll let you know when it happens, alright?" he said. "You're all part of the family too."

"We'll be waiting to hear,' K agreed. "And ready to see the solo act, too."

"It'll be amazing," Barney promised, puffing out his chest a little bit.

"Well, duh. You'll be running it," Clint said as if it was patently obvious this was the only possible outcome. He paused and then rushed over to hug Barney hard. "Knock 'em dead, okay?"

"Totally," Barney agreed, hugging Clint back just as tightly before they parted ways — with Barney headed back to the tent and the rest of the group switching gears to catch up with the other X-Men.

Clint darted over to K. Even if he was getting a little too old to totally grab onto her, it was still nice to be close to her when he had to split with his brother, even if they had a whole thing worked out. "So, since James is here, I think the Avengers want us to stay with them this summer," he said, trying to think ahead and not think back on Barney. "I think Thor needs more Arrow time."

"Of course they do," she said, shaking her head. "And I think Thor needs to get his own dog."

"You should tell him that. Or get him one for his birthday." He paused and then grinned. "Or a random Thursday. I learned about how that's his day. We're doing mythology in lit with Storm, and the Norse gods are  _fun_."

"Of course they are," she laughed. "What did you expect? Or are you holding out to hear from Loki to really decide where you stand?"

"Hey, I'm supposed to be  _learning_ , right?"

"And … I just want to know if you're going to actively start hoping for trouble," K said.

"Nah," Clint said with a shrug. "At least let me hit thirteen so I can do it  _professionally_. Everything else is just practice."

"Okay. Yeah. I'll go along with that. Maybe I'll teach you some Swedish or Old Norse so you can tell him where to stick it in a more familiar language."

"I know how to say it!" Katie piped up helpfully — and then flipped K off.

"You do!" K said, laughing at her. "Such a smart little sign-er!"

Katie giggled, clearly pleased with herself. "Susie says it's  _rude_. So I do it to her and stick my tongue out behind her back!"

"Yeah, we save that for super-jerks, not just snotty sisters and brothers," K said, though she stopped short of telling her to  _never_ do it … especially since with Katie, that would make it a more frequent issue.

"Oh, okay. I'll just stick my tongue for brothers and sisters," Katie nodded. "I can sign nice things too! Clint showed me! Didn'tcha, Clint?"

Clint smirked and nodded. "Yeah, we've been working on it for a while."

"Of course you have," K said. "Smart big brother that you are." She looked past Clint to Katie. "So … we're going to take our time getting back, alright?"

"Okay," Clint said with a shrug. "I didn't want to go back to homework anyway."

"I just thought we could make a little longer weekend out of it," K said. "One day won't hurt, right?"

"Family trip!" Katie giggled delightedly. "Let's go roller skating!"

"Can we?" Clint asked, spinning to face K.

"Only if you don't mind just the two of you skating," she said.

"That's okay. I'll look out for her," Clint promised, with Katie nodding and bouncing beside him.

"Uh-huh! I got the bestest big brother ever!"

But Kurt had been eavesdropping, even if the other X-Men that had come down to the circus were all more or less doing their own things, and he teleported over with a little smile. "Do you need an extra hand with the little ones?" he offered.

"The kids want to rollerskate," K said. "Want to help with that?"

Kurt glanced at Clint and Katie, who were both grinning up at him, and then smiled. "What do you think, Katie?" he asked, picking her up to toss her in the air. "Should we get some skates for my tail too?"

"Yes!" she said, dissolving into giggles before she latched on to hug him.

"I'll just be over in the corner with my sweethearts," K said with James on her shoulder and Logan smirking at Kurt.

Kurt smiled at that and put Katie on his shoulders, where she stayed the whole way to the skating rink until he finally set her down so she could try on her skates. And before he knew it, Kurt was skating around holding Katie's hand so she wouldn't fall down while Clint skated in laps and shouted encouragement. And while the three of them were skating and having a good time, Logan and K settled in to take care of James and keep an eye on things, generally speaking.

Eventually, Katie got tired, and Kurt took her over to where Logan and K were sitting with a smile. "You two can lap Clint if you like. I'll hold James, of course," Kurt said with a smirk.

"Not quite as fun if it's not on ice," K teased, though she gently handed James over all the same.

"It's lotsa fun," Katie promised, even as she unscrewed the lid off a water bottle.

"Alright, but you—" K tapped the end of Katie's nose. "—need to catch your breath."

"I'm havin' fun!"

"Yeah, but I don't want you awake all night when you fall asleep on the way back," Logan said before he pulled on her ponytail lightly.

Katie giggled. "I can stay up all night!" she sang out to him. "All the time! All night!"

"Better not," he said, then kissed the top of her head.

Katie grinned and then attached to him in a hug. "Okay, Daddy. I'll be good!"

The two ferals headed over and laced up before they stepped out on the rink — with Clint whooping and having a blast as he sped around in his best approximation of a speed skater. And after just a few minutes, Logan and K were doing a fair job of looking more like they were out on a date.

"You're in lo-o-o-ove," Clint laughed. "Why you always gotta be like this?"

"Pretty sure you just answered your own question," Logan told him.

Clint rolled his eyes as he skated on the other side of K. "Okay, but if you start acting like — like Scott an' Jean, then I'm gonna barf."

"I don't think that's possible," K laughed. "But I'm sorta curious on your take on what that looks like outside of  _drooling_ and staring at each other for hours at a time while they do the whole … Vulcan mind-meld thing."

Clint giggled at that. "Oh yeah. That's totally what happens."

"And what do  _we_ do that's so offensive?" she asked.

"I dunno. It's not  _offensive_ ; it's just… all the time, I guess." Clint shrugged. "I'm glad you're in love, Mom. But do you gotta be in love every second?"

"Well, yeah; it's not a part time thing," she said.

"That sounds like a lot of work," Clint said, pulling a face.

"If it was  _work_ , do you think we'd be stealing all the kisses like that?" Logan asked.

"Barney says he's been  _trying_ to do that, so it sounds like work to me!"

"That's because he's  _trying_ ," Logan laughed.

"I know Anna's gonna kiss him if she didn't get bored and move on while he was at school with us," Clint pointed out with a crooked grin.

"That's not somethin' to wish on a guy, even if he is your brother," Logan said with a frown.

"I'm just sayin'. He was lookin' at Kitty while he was with us, so…" He shrugged. "Mom says boys should be held to the same standard. That's what she told us both when he started kissin' girls."

"She's right," Logan said, though it was in a little breath. "But you're both young."

"I'm not that little anymore. I've only got two and a half years left before Scott says I can be a junior X-Man!"

"Still too young to be worryin' about your love life."

"I don't  _have_ a love life," Clint pointed out. "Just Barney does."

"Keep it that way," K said. "And he just thinks he has a love life. Little Romeo."

Clint snorted. "You should call him that from now on! Like you call me duck fluff!"

"I'll think about it," K told him with a little smile as they kept cruising.

They were just doing their last lap when Kurt spotted a few men in black that had no business at a roller rink. He narrowed his eyes, then took James in a tighter grip and called out to the other two adults on the trip: "We've got uninvited guests. We'll meet you back home!" With that, he grabbed Katie and teleported the smallest ones away from the danger.

Logan and K both paused, looking around them until they spotted the trouble. "You two ready to move?" Logan asked, even as they changed direction to go the opposite direction of the guys in black.

"Yeah, and speedier than usual," Clint joked, though he was obviously a little stressed about it.

"Just get movin' … head for the jet," Logan said. "You remember where that is, right?"

"Yeah," Clint said in a breath.

"Go on," Logan said. "Tell Scott what's goin' on."

Clint nodded and then took off as fast as he could on skates — giving Logan and K both room to work without worrying about Clint in the middle. He could already hear them starting up a fight behind him as he rushed out of the place, going a little faster on skates than he was used to and wobbling slightly as he turned the corner — only to find that there were a bunch of guys in black uniforms close to the jet too.

"Aw, crap," he muttered, doing a bit of a pinwheel before he managed to get turned around again. If they were surrounded, then the best place, he knew, would be somewhere close to his parents.

By the time he got back to Logan and K, the number of creeps in black was well above the normal people that  _had_ been there when he left — and even being not as tall as the crowd, and fighting the flow of traffic, Clint could see that the creeps were getting between Logan and K, which usually meant a lot of guys were going to be really sorry about how stupid they were. It looked like Logan was just winding up to let loose when the group that was around K all seemed to move at once.

K was swearing — snarls abandoned entirely — before there were a few gunshots and the tide of black uniforms seemed to abandon where Clint  _knew_ K had been to turn their attention entirely toward Logan.

Clint's eyes went wide, and he rushed toward the soldiers, swearing when he saw that the soldiers had her surrounded. She wasn't moving like herself… she looked drugged. And when one of them managed to get what looked like an actual  _muzzle_ on her, Clint lost his temper and skated full-speed into the guy, knocking him over as Clint simply laid into him  _hard_.

The first guy that tried to grab him got an elbow in the stomach and an uppercut, but when they flanked him and grabbed both arms to drag him off the guy who'd muzzled K, the tide quickly turned until he had his hands trapped behind him and was stuck tight. "Lemme go. You can't fight me fair and square!"

"Shut up, kid," the soldier holding him said as they cuffed him, and then he turned to the comm at his shoulder. "We've got two. X is still fighting. Advise."

 _Just show him the two you have,_ the voice over the comm said.  _And make sure she's actually_ out.

"You're scared of my mom," Clint yelled loud enough to be sure everyone could hear it. "Scared of a short little mama bear!"

"With good reason," one of the others said — and he clearly had a series of scars running down his face that told Clint he'd earned it.

"That's your own fault," Clint shot back, trying to pull free as he said it. " _I_ don't have any problems. You're just an idiot."

"She shouldn't be out of a cage, kid." The guy tipped his chin up to where Logan was still fighting. "Him either. You're  _lucky_ we got you away from them."

"You don't know what you're talking about," Clint snapped back angrily. "I know who I was lucky to get away from, and it was people like  _you_."

The guy let out an almost patient-sounding breath and tipped his chin up as one of the soldiers made sure to hit K with another shot of whatever they were doping her with before they pulled her up and another held a gun to her head as they shouted for Logan. "We got your girl," the guy called out. "Keep fighting and we'll see how well she remembers you tomorrow, huh?"

When the threat was answered with nothing but a low growl — though the other soldiers were in no rush to move in — the guy holding K continued. "We got the kid too. Pretty sure he won't handle quite as much as she will, though. Hang it up. Get down on your knees and come in."

"Dad, don't," Clint breathed out, his eyes wide, though almost as soon as he'd said it, all his breath left him in a woosh when someone hit him in the stomach.

Logan couldn't stop the growl, but on seeing how solidly they had both K and Clint ... and knowing that these guys? They would hurt the kid … Logan finally swore to himself through gritted teeth and held his hands up at shoulder level, then slowly did as he was ordered.


	6. The Scientist in the Department

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which there are sinister plans afoot.

 

* * *

Clint was understandably terrified.

Once the creeps in black had taken his whole family in — thankfully without getting their hands on his little brother or sister, so that was something — the three of them had been separated, and he had been in a helicopter on his own, with  _no_ idea where his parents were, for what felt like an  _eternity._

None of the soldiers had talked to Clint since they took off, and Clint's stomach was doing somersaults by the time the helicopter started to descend. He'd recognized the black uniforms as the same creeps that had tried to grab his mom a few times now, so the fact that they had K  _and_ Logan was just not good. At all.

When the helicopter finally set down, he tried to slip out of their grasp so he could figure out what they were doing or where they were or if his parents were even close by, but he was still short enough that he couldn't see over the burly soldiers' shoulders, and he couldn't get loose enough to peer around them, either.

His heart was hammering in his ears as the soldiers dragged him along, though he didn't dare even  _try_ to ask where they were going when he knew he wasn't going to get an answer and the soldiers had already threatened him to keep his mouth shut, like, ten times.

Clint couldn't help that his reaction to being scared was to  _talk_. He just… did it without thinking.

But Clint wasn't encouraged at all when they got to what looked like a holding area, complete with cells… and he  _still_ didn't see his parents. And he started to panic all over again, knowing that if they weren't  _holding_ Logan and K, they were  _doing_ stuff to them and… and that was just bad.

Still, the fact that they left him in one of the cells and there  _still_ wasn't any sign of Logan or K after that…

He didn't know what was going on with his parents, and he didn't know where he even  _was_ , though he was half convinced that these bozos were just keeping him there to  _use_ against Logan and K — and that was just making him feel even worse as he paced around, moving restlessly and trying not to totally fall apart. He wanted to be a hero, after all, and heroes didn't do stuff like that.

It had been long enough that he'd transitioned from being scared to being curled up and miserable when the door at the far end of the hall opened again, admitting a couple guards.

Clint got to his feet, scrubbing his eyes and nose and doing his best to look tough. "Where're my parents?" he demanded before the guards could even get to him. "What did you do to them? Let me see them!"

"Not sure if you noticed, kid, but we don't really take  _requests_  here," one of the guards said, sounding almost bored.

"Wasn't a request," Clint shot back angrily, though he took an unconscious step back from the cell door as the guards approached. Not that it kept them from grabbing him by the arms and pulling him out anyway, not giving him a choice in where he was going at all.

"Don't worry about anything, kid," one of the other guards said; unlike his friend, he seemed to be at least  _trying_ to give Clint some optimism. Maybe that was just because of his age, or maybe he just wanted Clint to be quiet... "When we get done with you, you'll outstrip those mutants."

"I don't  _want_ to outstrip them. They're my parents," Clint said, honestly panicking despite his best efforts, since it sounded like they were going to do more than just threaten him to make his parents behave.

But, again, he really didn't have any say in where they were going when they were bigger than him and he was cuffed and  _scared_. So it didn't matter that he was almost hyperventilating V he wound up in a lab anyway, getting even  _more_ freaked out about that.

And then, all of a sudden, he felt a cold, clinical presence in his mind that  _forced_ him to calm down, and the stupid pale creep that had been bothering them for a while stepped inside looking annoyed.

"What did you do to him?" he snapped at the guards. "I can't work with him when his heart rate and blood pressure are that high."

The guard looked defensive and sneered Sinister's way. "Nothing. Kid just keeps asking for the mutants."

Sinister let out a hum at that before he turned his attention to Clint — and even though Clint wasn't freaking out as badly anymore, he did make an effort to make sure this guy knew how  _thoroughly_ angry he was. "My mom's gonna take your head off," Clint said, his chin tipped up.

But Sinister simply shook his head at Clint. "If your mother hadn't interfered, I wouldn't need to turn to an outside source to safeguard my research."

Clint blinked at that and then narrowed his eyes. "You're the one being a kidnapper and a supervillain and everything. Not  _my_ fault that gets you stabbed."

"So dramatic," Sinister said with a tut.

"You're the one with the vampire face and a cape."

SInister let out an almost patient-sounding breath. "Is that a request to adjust your appearance?"

"Um, no," Clint said, shrinking back a little bit. "Definitely not. No. I like the way I look."

"Then mind your manners, boy."

Clint held his breath, looking between Sinister and the guards before he bit his lip, knowing he didn't have a way  _out_. "Fine," he said quietly, then blinked when Sinister raised an eyebrow — and muttered a "yessir" that tasted like being nice to stupid foster parents.

Sinister looked as if he was somewhat pleased with the response, and in reward, he simply didn't say anything to Clint. He put a hand on Clint's chest and pushed him back onto the table, still artificially keeping him calm, this time with drugs as he got to work. But since Clint wasn't fighting him or insulting him outright anymore, Sinister seemed to make an actual effort to keep the steady supply of sedative so that Clint didn't hurt. He was even going so far as to warn him before he'd do something that … even though Clint couldn't feel the pain, he could feel that  _something_ was going on.

Clint frowned, torn between being too scared to speak up… and wanting to know what Sinister was doing to him. But since Sinister had numbed him up a little, what came out was just a sort of quiet, "What're… what're doing?"

"Just taking a few samples," Sinister replied in an almost gentle, distracted tone. "Then you can go back to your room."

Clint's frown deepened, and he started to shake his head quietly. "Don't wanna."

"No?" Sinister said, not really entertaining him but still amused that the boy was trying to talk to him. "What would you rather?"

"G'home," Clint said tiredly.

"I'm afraid that's simply not an option," Sinister said. "For now."

"For now?" Clint tipped his head — that wasn't quite what he was expecting.

"Mmm." Sinister was clearly distracted, but he didn't bother to expand his statement from moments before. "We're done for today. Do try not to pop your stitches."

Clint was surprised to hear it, though as Sinister started to clean up, he glanced down at himself and then frowned. He was starting to  _feel_ it a little now, burning through the drugs now that Sinister was finished and wasn't administering them at a level that would keep Clint numb. He was kind of sore, but he still didn't know what had  _happened_ to him.

He glanced toward Sinister and then let out a breath, frustrated that… of everyone he'd seen in this whole stupid place,  _that_ guy was the only one who'd actually talked to him.

So, he might as well try… "D'you know where Mom is?"

"She's safe," Sinister said. "No one can harm her where she is."

Clint frowned at that, shaking his head to dispel some of the cobwebs. "But she's with these idiots," he said slowly.

Sinister smirked at that. "Yes. And under my protection."

Clint didn't have much of a filter on a good day, and under drugs, it was gone. "Um. I… dunno if that's good'r'not."

"It is," Sinister said, still sounding patient. "You wouldn't appreciate what they'd  _like_ to do to her."

Clint found himself nodding in agreement. "Yeah, she told me some of it," he said. "It was not good."

Sinister turned his way to watch him for a moment. "I believe the word you're searching for is 'barbaric'."

"Yes, that," Clint said, nodding again as Sinister finally let him up, and he sat up carefully, still feeling off but at least starting to feel more like himself. "So… so now what?" he asked. He didn't like that Sinister was the only one with any answers, but, well, he'd take what he could.

"You'll go back and rest," Sinister said.

"Rest for what, though?" Clint said, frowning when he saw the guards start to pay more attention, obviously ready to move him. He couldn't believe he wanted to stay there any longer, but the alternative was a quiet cell away from his parents with guards who didn't give him  _any_ say.

"That's not your concern right now," Sinister said, finally turning his back to Clint in favor of the research he had that was so clearly calling his name.

Clint frowned at that, though the guards stepped forward, and once again, he found himself being manhandled out of the room, going the opposite way they'd come until they were back at the cell, and he was really too tired to do anything but do as Sinister had suggested and get some sleep.

* * *

As for Sinister himself, he was busy making sure that the information from the samples he took from Clint would be sealed away in his  _own_ collection, somewhere the data would still be accessible when the Department inevitably called down their own destruction on their heads.

He wasn't fond of the department, if he was honest. As he'd told Clint, he considered their methods to be intrusive and barbaric. And yet they did at least provide some semblance of protection so he could continue his studies that had been so rudely interrupted.

And as for those studies…

Well, his desire to help mutantkind had finally overridden his curiosity about Clint's genetic anomaly. From what he could see, the boy's genes were actually a  _danger_ to the gene pool, misplacing the X-gene and suppressing its expression… If other mutants had the same problem, their potential would be quashed.

Still, he had wanted the data for his records. It was an anomaly, and he wanted to be able to refer back to what he had learned from the boy even after he gave the boy what the department vernacular had termed an "upgrade."

It was an interesting enough proposition that Sinister had agreed to it. When Sinister had explained to the department why he wanted the boy alive, they had at first seemed uninterested — they rarely were interested in his pursuits, not really — but then, when they'd had the time to consider the potential, they had come back to him with an idea.

The main obstacle they had faced when trying to create a supersoldier was that the healing itself was maddening. But what if this little Barton boy was the missing link?

It was an interesting thought — using the boy's genes as an extra step, allowing a body to get used to the healing first before continuing on. It would, of course, require more testing and more samples of his unchanged genetics to have on hand…

Either way, of course, Sinister would get what he wanted. If the experiment was a success and the little boy was able to grow from his current power to something more like his adoptive family, then the department had found their missing link. If the experiment failed, then Sinister would simply wipe the boy's mind and use him for his own ends. After all, the boy had managed to worm his way into both the Howlett and Summers families. That was useful.

Obviously, Sinister hoped that the experiment would work — not only for his own pride but because he had been so carefully cultivating a bit of trust with the young man. He greatly preferred molding minds to wiping them entirely, at least when there was potential to be nurtured.

Yes, he had options….

* * *

Kurt had his hands full.

He had been expecting his friends to follow close after him once he'd gotten the youngest ones out of danger, but in the time it had taken him to get James settled out in his crib and to leave Katie with her sister, things had clearly gone horribly wrong at the skating rink.

The evidence of the soldiers' incursion was everywhere, in bootprints, knocked-over chairs, and shoes left behind in a rush of people trying to escape the attack. But there was no sign of Logan, K, or Clint.

Kurt tried calling out for them a few times, but when there was no answer, he teleported back to Westchester, frowning hard and now telepathically calling out for Jean.

And Jean, of course, immediately rushed to Cerebro to look for their missing friends — specifically reaching out to try and find Clint's mind — but that left Kurt pacing and worrying instead. And he wasn't feeling any better when Jean was  _still_ looking by the time James woke up, hungry and clearly looking for his parents.

Jean switched off with Charles on Cerebro and helped Kurt with James — she had some formula on hand to help her and Scott with balancing the twins, who were never on the same eating schedule, it seemed — but that left him sitting in a room with Jean as she fed Nate and he held James while Lizzy had some tummy time in between them.

Normally, Kurt was more than happy to hold his godson. But this was different.

 _They'll be alright,_ Jean projected to Kurt, though even at that, he could hear the honest concern in her mental voice.

 _I'm sure they will be,_ Kurt projected back.  _The problem is that they are not_ right now.

 _I know,_ Jean said, and the silent stretched on between them until Lizzy started to get a little fussy, and she let out a sigh, reaching out telepathically to Scott, who had brought Rachel with him into the War Room.  _Come play 'pass the baby'_ , she said.  _You can take Nate to the War Room; he'll just sleep on you._ She paused and smirked.  _And I know you don't want to leave the room when you can be looking for our friends._

 _I'll be up in a minute,_ Scott projected back, obviously distracted combing through any leads he could find on satellite.

Jean let out a tired breath.  _I know. I'm worried too._

_You'd think we'd get used to it by now, considering how often they seem to be in trouble._

Jean couldn't hide her smirk at that.  _It's alright, Scott. I won't tell them you were this worked up._

_Jean…_

She smirked a little wider.  _Yes?_

She could hear his sigh without seeing him.  _Nothing. I'll be up in a minute._

Jean shook her head to herself. One of these days, she was going to figure out how to get two of the people she loved most in the world to pull their heads out and realize that they actually both  _cared_ about each other.

But for now, well… one problem at a time.


	7. Leverage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Sinister is somehow the lesser of two evils.

 

* * *

Katie was really worried about her new family.

Her new mom and dad were still gone, and no matter what Miss Jean and Mister Scott and Mister Kurt and anyone else said, she could  _tell_ that they were worried. They didn't smile like normal, and they were always checking their comms and spending their time looking over papers and computers and stuff.

But Katie was  _very_ sure that Logan and K wouldn't leave their new baby boy for this long, so she knew something was very,  _very_ wrong. She just didn't know what it was.

She  _did_ know that James was upset, so she was trying to help Kurt take care of him. She liked James a lot, even if he cried a  _ton_  lately. But she knew what his favorite toys were, so she tried to make sure that Kurt had those whenever he needed them. Sometimes, that helped.

But Katie had to admit that she was a little scared, too. She was trying not to show it because James was so little and he needed someone to look after him, but… Katie was worried.

She really didn't want to lose her parents all over again now that she had new ones that were super nice and let her stay up and watch movies like her big brothers.

Katie was doing really well at keeping her brave face on, too… all the way up until Susie tattled on her and told Dr. Blue she wasn't doing real well, and then as soon as Dr. Blue scooped Katie up into a hug… that was it. She couldn't hold it in anymore, and she completely buried herself in the hug.

"You know everyone here is doing everything they can to find them," Dr. Blue said gently, rubbing a hand over her head and hair as she sniffled into his shoulder.

Katie nodded and sniffled, but she still buried her face a little deeper into his fur. "I want my dad," she whispered out.

Hank let out a noise that clearly revealed how heartbroken he was. "I know," he said gently, still snuggling her tight to his chest.

"I want my Clint," she whispered, holding on a little tighter.

"I know," Hank said again, pulling her close to kiss her temple before she let out a hitched sort of sound and started to cry into his shoulder all over again.

* * *

Things weren't much better on the other side of things, inside the department.

Clint still hadn't seen his parents, and it had been a couple of days. He hadn't been able to do much of  _anything_ , really, except to "rest" and "recover" and "not pop his stitches" and insult the guards who brought him food. The cell was pretty small, and there wasn't anything to  _do,_ and Clint felt like he was  _going out of his mind._

At this point, he almost wanted to do something that  _would_ pop his stitches, just to screw up whatever their stupid plans were. Just for spite. He was  _that_ frustrated.

He didn't know what he'd do. Maybe somersaults. Something he'd learned from Barney at the circus. The contortionist had taught him some pretty cool stuff last time he'd spent a weekend there. That would probably work, right?

He was just thinking about maybe trying to touch his toes to his ears when he heard the door open at the other end of the hallway and got to his feet fast, his hands in fists and his eyes narrowed. He stuck his chin out and looked as defiant as he could. That was, he figured, the best way to tell these guys to screw themselves when he was stuck and couldn't do much else.

But instead of just dropping off something for him to eat like they'd done every time before, the guards actually opened up the door to Clint's cell — and that had him dropping the defiant look in favor of one more like panic. As much as he hated being trapped in that cell, he didn't  _want_ to go anywhere these creeps wanted to take him.

After all, the last time they'd dragged him out, he'd gotten  _stitches._

The problem, of course, was that the guards were still a whole lot bigger than Clint was, and they didn't care that he was ten and scared. They just grabbed an arm apiece and  _pulled_.

"Get offa me," Clint said, his tone ringing with panic — not that it had any effect on the guards.

"Shut up, kid."

That was all anybody said to him lately — "shut up, kid" — and it was grating on his last nerve. What else was he supposed to  _do_  in this place?

Maybe they'd rather he just bit them. He could totally do that too.

Clint was mentally cursing everyone he could think of related to this whole stupid mess, though he was paying enough attention to realize that they didn't take the right turn down the second hallway that had taken them to where Sinister was set up, and that more than anything was what finally got him worried.

If he wasn't going to Sinister, then where, exactly, were they taking him?

After that left turn, they just seemed to keep going, deeper and deeper into the facility that looked a lot bigger to Clint than it probably actually was, since he was small and panicking. But when they got to what looked like a much more intensive holding area than the little cell that Clint had, Clint couldn't help but hold his breath.

Maybe  _this_ was where they'd been keeping his parents.

His heart was too loud in his ears, and he didn't have his aide, so he couldn't have heard either of them, but he did  _feel_ a growl as the guards brought him into a room before he even saw Logan—

And then he couldn't stop his smirk, because Logan was surrounded by guards — but all of the guards were black and blue and clearly wary of Logan.

 _That's what you get,_ he thought to himself, though he had to frown when he took in the  _rest_ of the scene.

Logan looked pretty bloody, and it was clear he was healing from several shots that he'd taken, based on the pattern of red alone. The fight had also upended a table, where there  _had_ been what looked like some kind of black suit as well as a communicator and … a collar, it looked like.

Clint had a feeling he'd just been paraded into some bigger fight, but he only had the pieces of it. But given what his mom had told him about how these people tried to make her kill for them, he couldn't help but glare at the comm and uniform on the floor.

"The hell's he doin' here?" Logan growled out when he saw Clint, though it was clear from his expression he had a pretty good idea.

"Since you can't seem to follow orders without incentive," the guard on Clint's left said with a sneer and then let the sentence drop, pulling Clint slightly closer with his free hand on his gun, which just had Clint holding his breath because this was  _exactly_ what he hadn't wanted to have happen.

Logan glared the guard's way, staring him straight in the eyes as he took a measured breath. "You know you're gonna die real slow, now, right?"

"You're not getting out of it, X," the guy said evenly.

But the tone and the name only had Logan doing his best to keep from rushing him at that moment and tearing him up — in case Clint got in the way. "Neither are you."

For a moment, the guard narrowed his eyes at Logan, and then he let out a breath and pulled his weapon, resting it on Clint's shoulder almost lazily. "You've got two minutes to cooperate. Take the uniform, the comm, the collar — and get your instructions. Clock's ticking."

The growl intensified as Logan glared at him for a moment longer, though it was clear he knew he wasn't going to get anywhere right then. Not with Clint and a gun pointed at him. And even though Clint was wide-eyed and unconsciously shaking his head, Logan didn't say a word, though he did change fast, pausing only when he got to the collar. "What the hell is this for?"

"Call it insurance," the guard holding Clint said. "In case you deviate from your instructions."

"Where the hell's my wife?" Logan growled out.

"Not here."

"No wonder you're in the job you are," Logan said from between his teeth. "Too damn stupid to do anything but be a pain in the ass."

"He's compensating," Clint said in a breath, shooting Logan a smile he hoped looked heroic and brave but probably wasn't.

The guard glared at both of them but didn't address either of them except to say, "Twenty seconds."

Logan didn't even look Clint's way, since instead, he was focused on the big-shot guard as he finally tipped his head slightly. "I'm gonna enjoy gettin' a hold of you." But he did, in fact, snap the collar on.

The guard smirked and started to pull on Clint's arm to leave with him. "You'll be too busy doing as you're told," he said over his shoulder.

"Yeah, you go ahead thinkin' that," Logan called back. "Then ask how long the guards live around here that're on my detail."

"Lucky me. I'm on the kid's," the guard drawled.

"Yeah, lucky you … 'cept I got your scent. Ask your friends … no way to hide from that, pal."

"Yeah, you're pretty screwed," Clint agreed, though that really just had the guard glaring at him and hitting him upside the head.

"Shut up, kid."

The words barely left the guard's mouth before he shouted out — at the same moment a loud, ringing clunk echoed the hall and a helmet hit the ground after rebounding from the guard's head.

The guard crumpled, and Clint turned just in time to see Logan take a hit from the shock collar that put him on the ground too, though without the guard holding onto his arm, Clint rushed over anyway, just  _upset_ at that point and feeling pretty terrible about the whole affair.

Logan was down and out, though, and Clint found himself being dragged back and hurried away from the whole thing — not that he wasn't doing his level best to fight back and get to Logan, dropping himself as low as he could to make it hard to carry him, biting exposed skin — whatever he could do to make the guards work for it.

So he was understandably keyed up and had a couple new bruises by the time they managed to bring him to the next stop in Sinister's lab.

"How hard is it for you cretins to keep the boy calm?" Sinister said, honestly sounding irritated — more than usual.

"You're not the one calling the shots around here," Clint's new guard said.

"And neither are you," Sinister said, looking furious. "If you need to learn the intricacies of a hierarchy, I can certainly arrange for it to be explained to you in small enough terms that you might have hope to absorb it.."

The guard narrowed his eyes at that and then simply shoved Clint forward. "I'll be outside the door," he said — slamming it shut behind him and leaving Clint still  _fuming_  with his hands clenched in fists.

"If he harmed you, I'll have his head," Sinister said, though it was clear he was looking for a fight.

"I… took a chunk outta his hand," Clint admitted.

Sinister waved a hand. "But were  _you_ injured?" He was finishing up something on paper, and he hadn't risen from his seat at the desk — yet.

For a second, Clint thought about waving it off like he always did…. But then, he figured if the bad guys were gonna fight, he might as well stoke it, so he shrugged and then nodded. "Yeah, a little," he said. "I got mad when they hurt my dad."

Sinister set his pen down and looked over at Clint with narrowed eyes, though he didn't ask further, instead simply diving into Clint's mind to see for himself what had happened. And once he saw, it was clear that he was right on the edge of livid.

Clint rubbed his forehead a little as he sat down — getting invaded like that gave him a headache, especially since Jean had been helping him with psychic defense and it hurt when those walls went down. "So… yeah. That happened."

Sinister kept his eyes on Clint as he picked up the phone on the desk and made a very quick call. "The imbecile that is mishandling my test subjects must be replaced immediately." He didn't wait for an answer before he hung up and then turned his attention to Clint. "I'm afraid there are drawbacks to working with those that are slower than my Marauders."

Clint blinked, still not sure how to react to … anything Sinister was doing, since it was… sort of helpful? In a weird way? He shook his head and then decided the only thing for it was to fall back on a joke. "Which is impressive because your Marauders are  _stupid_."

"They at least know their place," Sinister said. "Which is a step above these brutes."

Once more, Clint paused, because, well, it was weird enough that Sinister was the (relatively) nicest person there, but then to have a sense of humor on top of that was just… It was messing with his head, and he didn't know how to react to it. "You know, if you don't wanna work with cavemen, you could just… not," Clint pointed out at last.

 _It's a temporary arrangement,_  Sinister projected to him.  _Don't concern yourself with it._

_It's concerning to me if my dad's gonna get enslaved and my mom is still missing!_

Sinister narrowed his eyes at that as he slowly made his preparations to examine Clint.  _Tell me everything. Not just what happened before you came to my lab today._

Clint took a deep breath, hesitating only a moment before he figured, well, Sinister had already been in his head anyway and would probably take it anyway. And the next thing he knew, he had just… rushed through laying out everything from how they were caught to the fact that he  _knew_ his mom had said she was forced to kill people to the fact that he  _hated_ being leverage…. He'd been cooped up for a few days, and it all came out at once — everything he'd been worrying about in his little cell.

And as a side note, while Clint was telling him everything, Sinister had simply moved on to perform his exam while the boy was distracted, to the point that by the time Clint was finished and realized what was going on, it was a little too late to fight with him on it.  _As I told you before, this is temporary_.  _Try not to draw too much attention to yourself. They aren't allowed to hurt you._

Clint frowned at that.  _But they told Dad_ —

_They lied to him. He likely knew it but didn't want to risk you anyhow. He knows better than most how easily these animals slip their chains._

_I hate 'em,_ Clint replied fervently, pausing to hold his breath when Sinister took a blood sample — just a small one but still… it freaked him out every time it happened.

"It seems as though you're healing well," Sinister said, ignoring the comments that Clint had made more privately. "Though not as quickly as I had hoped."

Clint blinked for a second at the conversation switch and then shook his head. "I already said I'm not like my mom."

"No, not yet. There's still time, though."

"Um, I'm pretty sure I'd know if I was, because…" Clint tipped his head toward where he had a bruise on his arm from the guards yanking him around.

Sinister smirked at that.  _Pay attention to the names. I'll want them._

 _Okay, but you're giving me whiplash,_ Clint said, shaking his head with his eyes wide.  _Why are you even… what's with the… nice… routine?_

 _Believe it or not, I want to be sure those that I study are in_ good  _condition._

 _O...kay._ Clint was pretty sure he had a headache. "So. Um. Now what?"

Sinister paused before the diamond in his forehead began to glow a bit brighter. "Now, you can simply relax, Mr. Barton."

Clint frowned at that, but he couldn't quite stop it as he started to simply drift off to sleep.


	8. Just Like Your Mother

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Clint finds out what the department wanted him for.

 

* * *

When Clint woke up, he still felt a little… fuzzy, he supposed was the best word for it. Like everything was tingly. Like his whole body had fallen asleep and had that same sort of pins and needles feeling of an arm that had lost circulation from sleeping on it weird.

He blinked a few times and stretched, trying to get rid of that weird feeling as he looked around. And, of course, when his gaze settled on Sinister, he remembered what was going on and fell into a deep frown. "What'd you do to me?" he asked

"I simply set a few things right." Sinister leaned forward, his eyes dancing with anticipation. "How do you feel?"

"I dunno. Fuzzy," Clint said, unconsciously moving away from Sinister. "Seriously, why does everything feel like the physical version of TV static?"

"A charming description," Sinister said with a little smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. "I'll need to know if you have any trouble with your mental state, of course. Otherwise, again, you should  _rest._ "

"You didn't tell me what you did, though," Clint said, sitting up a little and shaking some feeling back into his extremities, though that didn't quite dispel the tingling. "Gah. This is  _so weird_."

"My advice would be to try and ignore the physical sensation."

"Okay, let's give you a TV fuzz all over your body and see how you handle it," Clint shot back without missing a beat.

"I've dealt with it perfectly well, myself."

Clint startled and then brought his hands up to his face. " _Did you turn me into a vampire?"_ he asked in a terse whisper. "I didn't hit you or nothing! I was — I was  _mostly_ polite!"

Sinister couldn't help but chuckle at that. "I'm not a vampire, Mr. Barton."

"But I don't want to look like one either!"

"It's not a concern."

Clint was clearly starting to panic, though, and he started to get to his feet. "You still didn't tell me—"

Sinister shook his head, clearly ready to be done with the conversation and move on to his work. "Rest, Mr. Barton. I'm sure I'll be checking in with you soon enough."

Clint was almost shaking in anger and panic. "Can't you just tell me — I don't know what's going on—"

Sinister let out a patient breath. "I corrected a defect." He gestured to Clint with one hand. "Look at your arms, young man."

Clint was starting to get a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, but when he glanced down… yeah, the bruises were gone, and so were a few old cuts and scrapes from roughhousing with the other kids back home.

For a long moment, Clint almost couldn't breathe, and then he just sat back in a sort of daze. "Oh."

"At least now you can say you inherited something from your mother."

Clint blinked at Sinister a few more times, feeling like the world was spinning. "Oh," he said again in a quiet sort of voice, tucking his knees up to his chin unconsciously. But since he didn't really have anything else to add, that simply had Sinister turning back to what he was doing while Clint tried to wrap his head around it.

He hadn't  _asked_ for this. And he knew his mom definitely hadn't either.

He felt very small and very  _stuck_  as he kept his arms around his knees even after the fuzzy sensation started to fade away, so when some guy walked in looking important and official, Clint just tucked into a tighter ball and tried to be invisible like he used to do when he was little.

He really just wanted to go  _home_. Whatever this creepy bald dude wanted, Clint wanted  _out_ of it.

"I told you before, Professor Thornton, the process takes a bit longer to be sure that all is in order," Sinister said in a drawl, his attention not really on the bald-headed, bespectacled, one- _handed,_ skinny little creep.

"You're not engendering any confidence, Windsor," Thornton snapped back, gesturing at Clint, who was clearly curled up tight. "The whole point was to avoid another Wilson, and you're not off to a great start."

Sinister bristled as he turned and regarded Clint for a moment. "He's also a scared child," he reasoned. "You'd have to be blind not to register fear from his body language. Mentally, he's showing no signs of what your  _butchery_ did with Wilson."

"Proof, Windsor. I'm looking for results, not mind games."

"And that requires  _time_ ,  _Andre._ " Sinister sneered at him. "I wouldn't be surprised if your impatience was exactly what caused Wilson to turn the way he did."

Thornton let out a scoff before he turned on his heel and stalked a few steps closer to Clint, who was still trying to look small. He didn't really say anything before he seized Clint's wrist, looked at his arm, and nodded. "At least he's healing. How extensively have you tested that?"

"What part of 'time is required' is so hard for you to grasp?" Sinister said. "I'm afraid I don't  _know_ any smaller words to make it easier for you to comprehend."

"And I'm not here so you can waste my time and resources," Thornton said, turning back toward Sinister with a glare. "When were you going to tell me about the infant, hm?"

"There is no infant," Sinister replied, but he was quick to project to Clint:  _Not a word about your little brother._

 _I'm not selling my baby brother out to these guys,_ Clint promised, barely glancing up over his knees to see the two men squaring off with each other.

"If you were a medical doctor, you would know there are many explanations for her condition," Sinister said in a lazy sort of drawl.

"Don't talk down to me," Thornton snapped. "And don't lie to me either. It was easy enough to know she was breastfeeding when my techs reported  _that_ issue back to me. You can't hide that."

"There are other triggers for lactation," Sinister said in that same easy tone. "And there is no proof that she's given birth." He smirked a little wider at that. "Or are you telling me that there was a pregnancy that you  _missed_ for me to look into?"

Thornton narrowed his eyes as he stepped closer. "I'm ordering my men to bring the infant in."

"There is no infant to bring in," SInister said, his eyes flashing dangerously. "And do not try to shout at me for wasted resources if you intend to chase after an  _imaginary_ child." The two of them were almost nose to nose if not for the massive height difference, though Clint saw the slight glow at the diamond and in Sinister's eyes as the two of them squared off. And then, all of a sudden, Sinister suddenly looked very  _pleased_ , even if his little smirk looked almost painful. "You're well out of your depth, Andre," Sinister said before he raised the back of his hand to his nose and sniffed at the tiny little trickle of blood that had started up. "It will be your downfall."

The glow was still there, and it was obvious that whatever Sinister was doing … he wasn't stopping. And then, very suddenly, Thornton was not doing well. At all. He looked dizzy for a moment and stumbled back a step before he simply crumpled to the floor — and all Clint could do was gape at him where he'd fallen.

"What…" Clint swallowed. "What did you do?"

"It's tragic, really," Sinister said, though he didn't bother crouching down or even examining Professor Thornton. "It was just a matter of time, really. But a rather large intracerebral hemorrhage is very common in men his age ... "

"But you…" Clint bit his lip and tucked his knees in tighter. "I didn't know you could do that."

 _I know anatomy better than most modern doctors,_ Sinister projected.  _And with my abilities? It's more shocking I don't do that more often to those that deserve to be removed from the gene pool._

Clint honestly didn't know how to respond to that, because he wasn't sure Sinister was  _allowed_ to get any scarier than he already was. There had to be a rule against that. And if he was honest, it just had him that much more convinced of how  _stuck_ he was if the guy could do things like  _that_.

 _I think the time has come to move on,_ Sinister projected out.  _And I know exactly where your parents are. I refuse to leave so much of my good work behind for these vultures to distort._

 _O...kay._ Clint bit his lip.  _Where are they?_

 _Leave that to my men,_ he said.

Clint took a deep breath and held it, trying to feel steadier than he was.  _Dad has this collar… you have to get it off. I bet they've got stuff in it._

 _We'll see if he can cut it off later,_ Sinister said.

Clint nodded and shakily got to his feet, still feeling a little sick… but Sinister simply got to work gathering up a few notes and other things before he tipped his head for Clint to follow him.

When they stepped out of the lab, two huge men that were clearly Marauders stepped up, and after a moment and a look from Sinister, the two of them headed off at a jog. "They'll get Logan," Sinister said. "You can help me with your mother."

"Okay," Clint said quietly, watching the Marauders rush off. "Is she okay? Do you know?"

"She is unharmed," Sinister said, leading the way at a quick clip.

What Clint wasn't expecting was how  _quickly_ the armed department soldiers were dropping as Sinister made his way to where they were keeping K. With a wave of his hand, they were turning on each other, dropping where they stood, or running the other way. Those that missed whatever suggestions Sinister gave them were blasted backward with enough force that the cracks as they hit the wall were audible. And it looked perfectly effortless for him.

Eventually, they got to an area of the facility that looked like something out of a science fiction movie, with tubes filled with green liquid everywhere Clint looked. But he couldn't spend too much time getting creeped out — not when he spotted the occupant of one of the tubes and broke into a run, almost breathless.

"Mom!"

"She can't hear you," Sinister said, though he went to work on getting the tube she was in drained out. "If you look on the far side of this room, you will find dry towels and blankets. We should move quickly."

Clint nodded, dashing in the direction Sinister had pointed so that he could help get his mom dried off and wrapped up, biting his lip hard enough that it had started to bleed a little, though he wasn't aware of it. "What were they doing to her?" he asked in a whisper.

"Don't concern yourself for now," Sinister said as he simply picked her up to carry her. "She wasn't harmed."

Clint wanted to press him on that, but… the thing was, he didn't know how he was going to get out — and Sinister had his mom, and the Marauders had his dad. And he still didn't know what it  _meant_ that Sinister had messed with his genes. So … he kept his mouth shut and hugged his elbows and tried to keep up as they made their way out.

They were almost to the exit when the Marauders caught up to them, with Logan held between them off the ground as they ran. Sinister looked their way for only a moment before he gave Logan a warning. "She is safe and unharmed, as is the boy. Don't force me to change that."

Logan narrowed his eyes, though Clint signed his way,  _It's okay._ He paused.  _I think._

Logan didn't pull back the glare, but when Clint was so clearly following Sinister — and while Sinister was carrying K — it wasn't like he had a whole lot of other options other than to let the Marauders haul him off without much of a fight. "Somehow, I doubt that he's got anyone's interests but his own in mind," Logan said, not even trying to be sneaky about answering Clint.

"Yeah," Clint said, glancing between Logan and Sinister and still holding his arms tight around himself. "But … he killed that professor guy."

Logan frowned at that. "The hell're you talkin' about?"

"Stupid bald guy with one hand and an attitude problem just—" Clint made a motion with his hands. "Dropped!"

Logan turned toward Sinister. "What'd you do?"

"Nothing of consequence," Sinister replied. "Now be quiet or I'll put you out until we're somewhere more palatable." He thought about it for a moment, paused, and then turned toward Logan to knock him out anyway.

"You didn't have to do that!" Clint said, his eyes wide.

"He's much easier to deal with when he's asleep," SInister said. "And it will make moving him much simpler."

"But you didn't have to," Clint said quieter this time, frowning to himself as the group of them headed out. He didn't know where they were going, really — but at least it was away from the soldiers, he supposed.

In fact, Clint was still pretty worn out from the procedure Sinister had done, so he ended up falling asleep during the trip to wherever, waking up at last when the car door opened and the Marauders pulled Logan out. They probably would have carried Clint out too if he hadn't woken up.

It was a big house that looked like it probably belonged to someone important a hundred years ago, and Clint thought it loked like someplace that Sinister had probably put aside for a while. But that thought had Clint pausing for a second out on the grounds.

He was glad to get out of that facility, but… but he wanted to go  _home_.

"If you can manage to get her to behave," Sinister said, "then you can stay with your mother."

That got Clint to break out of his thoughts and look toward Sinister, who was still holding K, and he held his breath before he nodded quietly. "Yeah, I want to stay with her."

"Then I'll see you to your room," he said, leading the way — and still carrying K.

It wasn't until they got to the upstairs bedrooms that Sinister did finally set K down in a room with two beds, though Clint didn't bother with the second one and instead climbed up next to K once Sinister had stepped back from her.

"You'll find everything you need here. Whatever isn't locked, you're free to use." Sinister gave Clint a little smirk, then turned to leave, locking the door behind him.

Clint watched the door for a long moment to see if anyone was going to come back, but when it seemed like they really  _were_ alone, he let his shoulders drop and started to try and gently shake K awake. "Mom," he whispered. "Mom, wake up. We're in a whole lotta trouble."

It took a little effort, but after some work on Clint's part, K did finally start to blink awake. "Are you okay?" she asked blearily, though it took her a moment to realize how she was wrapped up. "The hell …."

Clint didn't answer her at first other than to throw himself into a hug, almost hiding in her side. "You were in a weird green tube and you weren't wearing any clothes so I got you some towels and blankets and stuff and—"

"Yeah, that … happens with them," K said. "Sorry for the mental scars."

"I'm okay," Clint promised, then paused. "Well, I'm not, because we're in a  _lotta_ trouble, but I'm okay with the rescuing part."

"Where are we?" K asked, one arm around his shoulders as she looked around the room.

"Umm." He glanced up at her for a second. "Don't freak out. We're … um. Mr. Sinister got us out of the department…"

"I'm still drugged, aren't I?"

"I dunno," Clint said.

She sat up, still holding the blanket around her as she took better stock of the place. "Well … as far as prisons go … this doesn't look too hard to break out of …"

"Yeah, but I don't know where Dad is and — and—"

She frowned as she thought it over. "You said Sinister …  _what_?"

"Ummm." Clint shifted slightly. "So… he kind of killed this one-handed professor for getting in his face?" He glanced up at K. "He so deserved it, but like… did you know Sinister could make someone just…  _die_ by looking at them? Because I did  _not_."

She raised an eyebrow at that. "I doubt it was just by looking at them or all three of us would be stone."

"Okay, but I saw it. He was glow-eyed — and then this guy  _dropped_."

"Then he was doing something more than looking," K reasoned. "It just … didn't look very impressive." She patted Clint's arm. "He's a creep; that's pretty clear."

Clint nodded. "Yeah, I know," he said, then paused again. "But, Mom, he… he got all of us out. You and me and Dad."

"Why?" she asked, then stopped. "Wait. No. The better question is why he was with them to begin with."

"He said it was because the last lab got trashed," Clint admitted. "It sounded like he was just using them, honestly."

"Well he was asking for it," she said.

"Yeah, he was," Clint agreed, hugging her a little tighter. "It's just… He's being weird. Like… being nice and he made a joke and I don't know what to do about that?" He scrunched up his face. "And he made sure the department didn't know about James so… so that's good. And he trashed all his research about me so they can't use it and that's good too. And he rescued you and Dad and that's good. And ... and he let me stay with you and that's good…"

K hugged him tighter for a long moment. "But why would they want to use research on you, sweetheart? I'm not upset it's destroyed, but I would like to know why they were so eager to use you, too."

Clint paused and unconsciously looked down at his unblemished arms. "It's… cause of me being different, I guess," he said quietly.

"Still can't distill awesome, so that doesn't explain much," she said. "But … maybe you could do me a solid and look around. I sincerely hope that there is something I can wear that's not … half slimy towels."

Clint nodded and got to his feet to head for the closet. "Well, when he was bossing his cavemen around, he made it sound like he'd been getting this place ready for a little bit, so…"

"How long have we been gone?" K asked as she got up to look for a path to a bathroom. Being in the tube was one thing … washing off the crap that she was floating in …

"A few days," Clint admitted, looking through the closet and trying to find something that looked like his mom would like it even though it was mostly dresses before he settled on a plain red one and pulled it off the hangar to bring to her.

"Well that's not bad," she said as she smiled his way and then took the dress. "I'll be out in a few minutes."

"Okay," Clint said, headed back for the closet to look for something for himself, since he  _had_ been wearing just some loose clothes from the lab and he didn't feel like himself in them. Though the lack of tee shirts was frustrating.

He managed to find something that looked comfortable and changed into it while his mom was in the shower, then climbed back into the bed, still more than a little freaked out.

When K stepped out of the bathroom, she was frowning at the room a little harder. "So … I'm guessing there wasn't any pants in the closet for me, hmm?"

"Sorry," Clint said. "That was all I could find." He gestured at his own slacks and shirt. "He's fashion-impaired."

"I don't know if I should be more upset that it's all dresses or that he actually picked a good color for me." She gave him a little look as she made her way over to the bed and sat down, patting a spot for him to join her.

"Um. Yes," Clint decided.

"So … now what?" she asked, wrapping her arms around him and pulling him over for a better hug. "I can find Logan easy enough. Just need to sniff around a little."

"I don't know," Clint said quietly. "I … I fell asleep when we were driving, so I don't know where we are, and we were in a helicopter before that. And…" He glanced up at her. "And I don't want to get in trouble again."

She pulled him a little tighter at that. "We're going to have to try something," she said quietly.

"I know," Clint said. "I just… it has to  _work,_ because if we get caught, then he won't let me stay with you," he added quietly.

"I'm sorry,  _what_?"

"That's what he said was if I could get you to be good then I could stay with you," Clint explained in a rush of breath, his eyes wide.

Her shoulders dropped, and she nodded, snuggling in a little better. "Okay. I'll wait and come up with a better plan."

Clint nodded and half buried himself in her side again. "I really do wanna go home," he whispered quietly.

"We will. I just … I'll need to know more before I consider trying anything."

"I'm sorry we're stuck, Mom," Clint said into her shoulder

"It's not your fault," she promised.

"It kind of is," Clint pointed out. "If it was just you, you could bust out. And Dad only got tricked into helping the bad guys because of me and—"

"Sweetheart, slow down," K said before she ran her hand through his hair. "Start from the beginning and tell me what you know. You're jumping around."

"I …" Clint took a deep breath. "I was mostly just stuck with Mr. Sinister and all, but I got to see Dad, and he was making 'em miserable — you know, like you're supposed to?" He smiled lightly. "But — but they wanted him to do something for them, so they made him do it because he was worried about me."

"He'll be alright," K said. "Don't feel bad, please. They knew what they were doing."

"But they weren't even s'pposed to hurt me!" Clint said, his voice rising slightly. "They lied to Dad!"

"Of course they did," she said. "That's what they  _do_. But he was probably just being careful for your sake."

"I'm really sorry, Mom."

"Oh no. You don't need to apologize for them," K said with a little smile. "You didn't do anything wrong. Nothing to apologize for."

Clint nodded and then reattached to K. There was something about hugging his mom that made him feel a  _lot_ safer.


	9. Mom, I'm Different

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which K finds out what Sinister has been up to.
> 
> Also, Charles enlists an old friend's help.

 

* * *

K and Clint had spent the night more or less with K curling around him as much as she could and Clint holding on even in his sleep, though it was a fitful sleep all the same.

They were woken up the next morning not only by the sun streaming into the windows and lighting the room up but by the sound of the tumblers in the lock falling into place. K gave Clint a little squeeze to wake him up, but she didn't do more than that before Sinister stepped in looking far too smug.

Clint had only just started to wake up when he saw Sinister, and he frowned. "Are you gonna show us where the breakfast bar is?" he said tiredly as K slipped out and stood to block the path to Clint.

"It's time you and I took a little walk, Mr. Barton," Sinister said. "We have much to discuss."

Clint held his breath, looking between Sinister and K and trying to figure out where the line was between getting in enough trouble to lose his mom and satisfying the need to just …  _not_ roll over for this creep. "I… I can talk here," he pointed out. "And I'm really slow in the morning, you know."

"Yes, but I need another blood sample, and my tools are not here," he replied, though he didn't drop his gaze from K, who was very clearly trying to judge how fast she'd need to be and if she could manage it just then. He gestured to the bed and broke into a tight, not-at-all-believable smile. "We won't be long. I'd suggest you at least sit back down before I put you to sleep for the time being."

"You don't have to do that," Clint said quickly, disentangling himself from the covers in a rush.

"You don't know what she's thinking," Sinister said. "I'm trying to help. And if that means keeping her from acting out in your absence, then that's what I'll do."

K narrowed her eyes at that. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" she said. "You're not being  _nice_ to him. You're not giving any kind of a choice."

"Mom, it's okay. I know the difference," Clint said quietly.

"I don't think you do," K said, though Sinister cut across her before she could continue.

" _Your_  choice is simple, though," he told her. "Go back to bed or wait on a heap on the floor." Sinister didn't move, and it was clear he wasn't going to wait much longer for her to decide.

"Mom," Clint said softly, taking the few steps toward her to take her hand. "Just… it's a crummy choice right now, but maybe you can dream up some new ways to cut his hands off and shove them interesting places while I'm gone?"

K let out a breath and turned toward Clint. "I don't think that's how it works, sweetheart."

"Yeah, but I was trying to make you smile," he said, giving her a little smile to prove it.

She gave him a quick kiss on the forehead and made her way over to take a seat, though it was clear she wasn't happy about the options in front of her at all. "You don't need to knock me out," she said.

Sinister spared her a glance for a moment before he did it anyway, and Clint could feel his hands tightening in fists even though he was  _trying_ to be good. Barney's advice to  _hit them hard and make it stick_ was ringing in his head — it was just the "making it stick" part that was holding him back.

"You don't have to do that to Mom and Dad every time they get mad," Clint said, his hands still in fists.

"As far as idle minds go, I absolutely do," he replied.

"You're still a supervillain," Clint said, his eyes narrowed as he crossed his arms. He almost wished the guy would do something he knew what to  _do_ with like take a swing at him so Clint could give it back to him. This whole… messing with his head thing wasn't something Clint was prepared for.

Sinister simply smirked Clint's way and gestured for Clint to follow him… and the next thing Clint knew, he was waking up lying on an examination table as Sinister put some tools away. He felt kind of fuzzy again, and he was  _starving_ hungry, but other than that, he had no idea what had just happened.

He sat up, unconsciously holding his arms tight around himself. He really didn't like this. But on the other hand, it was probably better than  _knowing_ what was going on while it was happening… maybe.

"I thought we were gonna talk?" Clint said as he gingerly swung his legs around, still dealing with that pins and needles sensation.

"We did," Sinister replied. "We had a lovely chat, in fact."

"I don't remember it."

"That is truly unfortunate," Sinister said. "But now I believe it's time you went back to your mother."

"I… guess." Clint looked around the lab. He was sure if Hank was there, he could tell Clint what had happened. Maybe even Susie, seeing as she hung on Hank's every word. "Can I stop by the kitchen first? I'm starving, and I didn't ever get breakfast…"

"There will be food waiting for you in your room," Sinister replied.

Clint nodded, still totally unsure of what was going on but more than happy to get out of the lab. He wasn't sure how he knew the path to take out of the basement setup, but once he got to the main area, he remembered the way to which bedroom was his and K's and let himself in, relieved to see that there was, in fact, a tray full of food on the dresser — and K was even starting to wake up.

He let his shoulders drop and grabbed the tray to bring it over to her, sitting on the end of the bed. "Hey, Mom. We've got lunch, it looks like."

"Yeah?" she asked sleepily. "Are you okay?"

"I guess so," Clint said.

"What did that creep do to you?" she asked with her nose scrunched up a little. "I know you're hurt."

Clint glanced down at himself, frowned, and then shook his head. "I just feel weird," he said. "That's all."

"Sweetheart, I can smell the blood," K said flatly. "Where are you bleeding?"

"Oh." Clint blinked at her and then tried to look himself over better. "I don't know… I don't remember anything… I don't think I am?"

"It had to be memorable," K said, frowning deeper as she got to her feet to look him over herself. "You've got betadine on you … different antiseptics …"

"Really, Mom, I don't remember," Clint said. "I walked out… and then I woke up and he said we were done and sent me up here." He frowned down at the sandwich in his hand before he took a big bite. "I'm just … I don't know. I'm hungry, and I feel weird."

"Alright, I won't press then," she said, though she frowned deeper as she thought it through.

"I don't remember what we talked about," Clint said around a bite of ham and cheese. "I wish I knew what I said."

"It's okay," K said before she sat down next to him. "I just … don't like being turned off like that."

"Me neither," Clint said, shuddering a little bit. "He made me go to sleep at the department too."

"Whatever he's doing … it's not for our benefit," she said, wrapping her arms around herself. "And I want to know where the hell Logan is."

"I didn't see him," Clint admitted. "I … I should've looked while I was walking around. Sorry. I wasn't thinking about that." He wolfed down another half of a sandwich before he got to his feet — but by that time, the door was locked again, and he kicked the wood with a little glare.

"This whole mess would be easier if I knew where he was," K said. "But … at least I've got you. And I know you're relatively okay."

"Yeah, aside from sometimes feeling like my arms and legs and everything else fell asleep," Clint said. "Whatever he did to mess with stuff, it kind of… fuzzes. Not like what he did to you and Dad."

"Your arms and legs feel asleep?" K asked, frowning at him.

"My  _everything_ feels asleep," Clint said.

At that, K reached over to push his sleeves up and began to look him over a little closer, frowning deeper as she did so. "I thought he took blood? That's what he said he needed."

"D'you think that's what you smelled?" Clint asked.

"No," she said, tracing a finger over the crook of his arm. "And there would be a bruise."

"Oh. Well." Clint hedged, but seeing how  _worried_  K looked, he let out a slow breath. "It's just that… I guess I heal a little better now. I had some bruises before, and they went away last time too."

"What's that supposed to mean?" K asked almost in a breath. "We were only out a few days, right?"

Clint nodded. "Yeah, but… he said he fixed my genes…"

She blinked at him a few times, her expression perfectly flat. "He did what now?'

Clint shrugged his shoulders up to his ears, feeling pretty small. "Said… said I could say I inherited something from you," he said softly.

K was fuming, though she was keeping it pretty well under control at that, even if she was breathing a little heavier and clenching her jaw. "There was nothing wrong with you to begin with, Clint. You need to understand that."

"I know," Clint said, though he was starting to pull his knees up again. "I'm just saying what he said."

"So," K said quietly. "Have you been hurt since then?"

He shook his head. "I just know I had some bruises from the soldiers dragging me — and then, one day, I didn't."

"Are you dying of thirst, too — along with the eat-a-horse hungry?"

Clint raised both eyebrows but nodded. "Yeah."

"Drink water. Plenty of it." K shook her head and glared at the door. "That's from blood loss."

"Oh." Clint felt his stomach turn a little and rested his chin on his knees.

"I don't know what he did, exactly, but I don't like the sound of it," K said.

"Yeah," Clint said softly. "I don't know what to do with him," he admitted. "If he just hit me, I could hit him back, but it's all… deals and games and…"

"No deals," K said, shaking her head. "Just games — and he's the only one that wins."

"Stacked deck, loaded dice, yeah, I know," Clint said. "It's just ... I know how to hit back, but I don't know how to do it with this guy, y'know? I know I can't make it  _stick_."

"Yeah, he's a tough one," she agreed. "You know … it's like I taught you about equalizers. We just gotta find which two-by-four or lead pipe is the right one for this guy."

"I'll help you give him concrete shoes," Clint offered.

"He doesn't even want to get close enough to give me a chance," she said.

"Well, you  _did_ totally tear him up last time he got close to you," Clint pointed out.

"Not well enough."

"You'll get him," Clint assured her, wolfing down another half a sandwich. "We just gotta figure out how."

* * *

In Westchester, everyone had been so focused on trying to find their missing friends that everything else had fallen by the wayside. Plans had been canceled, students had classes off, the whole nine yards.

But with Charles spending so much time either looking for the Howlett family on Cerebro or helping with the little ones — who all loved him and his ability to know what they needed when they were still too young to communicate otherwise — he had forgotten to reach out to tell Erik that he wouldn't be able to hold their usual chess game. The truth was that he thought they would have found the little family by that weekend anyway, so he hadn't called initially, and then he'd been so busy looking that he hadn't thought to do so.

Which meant that Erik arrived to a slightly more disorganized state of affairs than usual instead of more carefully-orchestrated defensive postures.

At the moment, Charles was sitting in his office with James, taking a break from Cerebro while Jean tried to look for Clint's mind this time around. Rachel and Katie were elsewhere playing with Remy, and the twins had fallen asleep on Scott, who was dead asleep on Charles' couch as well, having worn himself out playing with the kids  _after_  he had run down a few dead ends and one destroyed Weapon X facility that didn't give them any clues beyond the fact that their friends had probably been there… but that didn't tell them where they were  _now_.

Erik stood in the doorway for a long moment, frowning at the scene, before Charles looked up and gave him a tired smile. "Erik, I'm sorry. I should have contacted you. We've been a bit busy…"

"In all my years, I can't say that I can recall ever seeing you quite like this, old friend." Erik gestured to the state of the office. "What has happened?"

"A few of our number have gone missing," Charles admitted. "It's been several days now."

"Only  _days_?" Erik said as he looked from the little one resting on Charles' chest to the little gathering of kids around Scott.

"It's a bit more urgent when James here is only a few months old," Charles explained, looking down at the little boy.

"And what happened to his mother?" Erik asked with a deepening frown.

"She's missing," Charles told him in a sigh. "You remember K and her son, Clint? She married Logan, and this is their little boy."

Erik looked surprised to hear that and couldn't help but tip his head to look a little closer. "Has it been that long?"

Charles gave him a tired smile. "Life does get in the way, doesn't it?"

Erik made his way closer, watching the little boy and frowning harder the more he saw. "What do you  _think_ has come of them?"

"We know who captured them at first," Charles said. "A weapons program that's given us problems in the past. But we were able to track them there… only to find the facility already destroyed." He shook his head. "Someone else has them now, but whoever it is — they are smart enough to invest in telepathic shielding."

"And you believe both of them are in the same place?" Erik asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I believe if they were separated, they would be free not long after that separation," Charles said with a quiet sort of smirk. "And then there's the fact that K's son was kidnapped as well — all three of them are likely together."

"The little human boy?" Erik shook his head slowly.

"Yes, Erik. Clint."

"I hate to say it — but who would want someone without powers compared to those two? Even I can see the tactical advantage to them … but a boy that has  _nothing_ extraordinary to offer?"

"As usual, my old friend, you take too narrow a worldview," Charles said. "I've found him to be bright, engaging, compassionate—"

But Erik chuckled at that. "Yes, we've proven time and time again that I have my interests and you have yours."

Charles shook his head with a quiet smirk and then let out a sigh. "Actually," he said, almost pausing to bring it up, but it could be crucial to finding the little family... "Clint has run into a spate of trouble recently. He might not be a mutant, but he does have an X-gene. And interestingly, his mutation is expressed on the wrong chromosome. An abnormality that has caught the attention of Mr. Sinister, I'm afraid. He's been interested in studying the boy."

"Ah, another mystery villain, creeping in the shadows and  _lurking_ around your little club."

Charles raised an eyebrow Erik's way and then let out a breath. "If he has them, then we can't act quickly enough to find them. He has a penchant for experimenting on anyone in his grasp.

Erik frowned at that. "I'd suggest getting a different babysitter, Charles. I believe I can make this easier on you if you can stoop low enough to accept my help."

Charles smiled at Erik almost gently. "You know I'd be happy to accept it."

"Then it should be a simple enough matter of  _finding_ a massive amount of an exceedingly rare metal." Erik smirked crookedly at that. "How shall we endeavor to accomplish such a monumental task?"

Charles almost couldn't help but chuckle. "I suppose I'll simply have to let you lead, my old friend."

"Then make your arrangements," Erik said. "That little boy is pitiful."

Charles nodded, glancing down at James and reaching out to Jean to let her know the new plan so she could take James. "He's been without his mother for several days."

"And he's not finding much comfort," Erik guessed.

"I think Jean cried for almost an hour when he stopped crying and simply… started to settle into this state," Charles said, looking down at the tired, sort of haphazardly fussy little boy before he simply followed Erik out of the office, pausing only to give James to Jean. "We'll be back soon enough," he said simply.

"You sure you don't want me to come too?" Jean offered.

Charles smirked and shook his head. "I think we'll be alright," he said, tipping his head toward Erik. "If there's one thing I've learned in my life, it's that when Erik and I are on the same side, there's nothing in the world that can stop us."

* * *

Once Erik had a lock on the adamantium in both K and Logan, it didn't take long for him and Charles to find the house where Sinister was keeping the little Howlett family. And once they were there, honestly, it didn't take the two of them long to work through the few Marauders who had been on duty guarding the place.

Erik was as ruthlessly efficient as usual, though Charles was, to Erik's surprise, not holding much back either. And though Erik didn't comment on it at first, he was growing more and more interested in seeing what kind of creature this Sinister was that he could get Charles to come out with Erik on a mission like this.

That is… until they got inside the house and started to make their way downstairs toward one of the sources of adamantium and Erik positively froze when he heard the unmistakable tones of Shubert.

And suddenly, he was a much younger man trying to escape the horrifying deaths that others were subjected to, trying to hunt down those responsible afterward… There was a man who had worked with the animals running their so-called experiments…

For just a moment, Erik couldn't breathe.

And then, all at once, he could hardly think — he was so furious.

All of a sudden, he was floating down the rest of the stairs, his hand already outstretched, bracing himself for what he would see and already resolving to make sure that the man running these experiments had no time to respond to Erik's presence before he was finished. There would be no mercy, no warning, no chance to escape justice.

When he burst into the basement lab, the scene was distressingly familiar, even if the players were different. There were two examination tables, one with an unconscious boy and the other with a well-restrained Logan, who was growling low, almost constantly, as the tall, pale man between them made some notes.

Both Logan and Clint, to Charles' concern, already had quite a bit of blood on them, and with Erik clearly furious and bent on moving ahead immediately, Charles had to act quickly to snap out of his own shock and anger at seeing the state of affairs to reach into Sinister's mind while he was distracted, binding him in his body the way Jean had done before.

At first, Erik reached out in what would have been a bit of poetic justice to take the tray of tools nearby, directing the implements now to embed themselves in Sinister. Which would have been enough to kill a normal man, but when it was clear Sinister was healing as he spun to face the two of them, eyes glowing as he pulled a scalpel free, Erik let out an angry sort of sound — and the next second, the tray was between Sinister's head and the rest of his body before the twisted doctor could even say a word to the newcomers.

For a moment, the only sounds were Logan's low growl still echoing and the sound of Sinister's body slumping. Erik was still in the entrance to the lab, looking furious and pained all at once… before he finally shook his head to himself and lowered his hand, releasing Logan from his restraints in the same motion.

Logan didn't bother even acknowledging Charles and Erik before he got to Clint and started very gently trying to rouse him. "Come on, kiddo," he said, looking him over — but maybe a little too quickly, since he was focused on getting the bag with the meds  _off_ of him, not realizing it had been a psychic suggestion keeping Clint asleep and that the drugs were mostly to stave off infection as a precaution when the healing was still so new. "You need to wake up, bud."

There was a beat more of silence before Clint started to shift and then let out a long breath and blinked up at Logan. "Oh, hi, Dad," he said, still sounding like he was blinking back sleep.

Logan looked visibly relieved, even if he was still trying to see if there was anything wrong. "Are you hurt?"

"I don't know," Clint said, resting his head on Logan's shoulder as he started to come out of it.

"I couldn't see," Logan said.

"I didn't know you were here," Clint said. "Where's…" He looked past Logan and went suddenly pale when he saw the half of Sinister on the floor. "What happened?"

Logan finally glanced over to Charles and Erik. "Chess game got moved."

"Oh. It's the guy giving purple a bad name," Clint said as his gaze found Erik.

"Yeah, well, he just killed Sinister."

"Oh." Clint blinked at Erik, who was still clearly trying to get a hold of his own emotions. "Thanks, I guess, but we don't want to go home with anymore supervillains today, so if we could just get a ride with Professor X…"

"We came together, Clint," Charles said with a warm smile. "But he's not acting as a villain today."

"Okay." Clint was too  _done_ to question it at that point as he put a hand on Logan's shoulder to push himself to his feet. "I know where Mom is. I want to go  _home_."

"Great, show me," Logan said as he steadied Clint and kept a hand on him.

Both Erik and Charles knew better than to get between them and K, so they had a good path up the stairs to the bedroom, where K had once more been sleeping while Clint was gone — though with Sinister gone, the command wasn't as strong anymore.

But for as done as the three of them were, she really only startled and blinked hard a few times when Logan simply scooped her up and turned back to Clint. "Let's get the hell outta here."

"Oh yeah," Clint agreed, already leading the way back downstairs to where Erik and Charles had clearly been having a quiet chat of their own, with Charles looking perfectly concerned for Erik — until the three Howlett family members got downstairs and he gestured for the door. "I'm sure you're all ready to be home again. The jet is waiting."

Logan nodded and fell back just enough to let Charles and Erik lead the way, though he wasn't entirely trusting that they were going to get away from Sinister that clean. "We're gonna need to make sure there aren't any trackers on us," Logan said, more to Charles than anyone.

"I'm quite sure Dr. McCoy will be thorough," Charles said. "For the sake of all our sanity."

"Right," Logan said quietly, though he was watching Clint closely. He was not, however, going to ask him to talk about it. And Erik being present was only part of his reasoning.

And that seemed to be perfectly fine with Clint anyway, since he was just glad to see his parents both together again and  _out_ of danger as they got on the jet. He simply sat down next to Logan and put his head on Logan's shoulder.  _I'm really sorry,_ he signed to Logan once Erik and Charles were in the cockpit talking to each other and Clint was reasonably sure they weren't going to eavesdrop.

 _Not your fault_.

 _Feels like it,_ Clint pointed out.  _Those guys made you do stuff for them._

_Not the first time._

_I know. But…_ Clint let out a long breath.  _I'm sorry, okay?_

_Don't need to apologize. They had other stuff lined up to make me._

_Sinister told me to make Mom be good,_ Clint said, still obviously feeling crummy about that part of things too.  _I didn't have a way to fight him, but I should've._

Logan smirked at that.  _Out of curiosity … how did that work out?_

 _Well, Mom was working on a plan,_ Clint admitted.  _She wouldn't tell me what because my head's not as hard to get into as yours and Mom's, but she said she was just trying to make sure it was solid so we wouldn't get separated if we got caught like Sinister said he would._

_Did he do anything to her?_

_I don't know,_ Clint admitted.  _We got her out of this weird green tube… But also, I keep forgetting stuff with him, so even if he did, I might not remember it._

Logan nodded and tried for a tight smile.

Clint glanced at K, who was clearly right where she wanted to be curled into Logan. "I'm gonna eat a cow and then sleep for a month," he whispered to both of them.

"Eat til you're tired, then sleep til you're hungry," K said.

"Yes, that."

K reached over to squeeze Clint's wrist. "I'm sorry for all of this."

"It's okay, Mom. The Purple Menace over there took the guy's head off, so… that's something, right?"

"Oh, I suddenly like him a little bit now."

Clint smirked. "Yeah, me too," he said before he put his head back down on Logan's shoulder, more or less just holding on tight and counting down the minutes until they could be  _home_.


	10. I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which YAY THEY ARE HOME

 

* * *

When they  _did_ finally get back, and the little group was out of the jet, they didn't waste one second on the lab — not when the kids had heard the jet come in and half of them were bouncing at the door to the hangar just waiting for them to return.

K gave Logan a kiss as Katie tackled Clint, positively attached to him in a hug as she  _gushed_ about how much she'd missed him and was he okay and did he fight any bad guys and why was he gone so long and could she hug him again...

Charles stayed behind to make sure that they found their way to the lab, though the adults were just through the doors when Scott stepped around the corner with James, looking overly relieved to see them.

James was still clearly  _down_ — all the way up until he spotted his parents, that is. And then it was everything Scott could do to stop him from falling backward out of his arms as the little guy twisted and tried to reach for them. Logan picked him up first, and the little guy couldn't stop himself from pulling his hair if for no other reason than because he didn't want to let  _go_ once he was holding on. But that only lasted long enough for him to gum Logan's cheek and get in a solid snuggle before Logan was utterly abandoned as James tried to  _dive_ for his mother.

K scooped him up and snuggled in, letting him get it out of his system, wordlessly babbling and cooing as he went between holding tight to Mom and double-checking that his father was still there, too. There were more than a few times when he'd pick himself up entirely and lean for Logan just long enough for Logan to rest his hand on the back of James' head and give him a little kiss before he went right back to his mom.

"He missed you lots," Katie said, holding Clint's hand as she came over to Logan.

"Totally mutual," Logan said, resting his hand on her head. "You okay, kiddo?"

Katie nodded and then let go of Clint to hold her hands up for him to pick her up, wrapping her arms around his neck once he did. "I was really scared," she told him in a small voice.

Logan wrapped her up and held onto her as tightly as she needed and kissed the top of her head. "I'm real hard to get rid of, little darlin'. Even if it takes me some time to get back once in a while."

"Yeah, but I was real scared," she whispered. "'Cause of how I love you."

"I'm sorry to hear you were that scared," he said in a rumble. "But we weren't gonna leave you here without us."

"Yeah, but…" Katie picked her head up so Logan could see how  _honestly_ worried she was. "My first dad got killed by bad people, and I don't want it to happen to you too!"

Logan leaned his head closer so he could rest his forehead against hers. "Do you know how long I've been fighting bad guys?"

"Longer'n I've been born?" Katie asked.

"Longer'n the professor and his friend have been born."

Katie's eyes went wide. "That's really long, 'cause of how the 'fesser is so old he lost all his hair and stuff."

"I know," Logan said. "And they're older'n dirt, so that just means I've been around for a lot."

"And you're not gonna get killed by bad guys?"

"Sweetheart, it's really,  _really_ hard for me to be hurt for long. It'd be real tough for one of 'em to take me out." He let out a breath and gave her another tight hug before he let her slip down. "When you're older, I'll explain it a little better, but me an' K both aren't goin' anywhere."

"Okay," she said, stealing one more hug before she'd let him set her down. "Good, 'cause I love you, Daddy. Lots, okay? And  _lots_."

"Love you too, punkin'," he said. "Now, you wanna go help your big brother get checked over? We all gotta go see big Blue to make sure no one's gonna try to follow us."

Katie nodded, rushing over to grab Clint's hand again. "You musta been somewhere weird, because you're all dressed funny," she said. "Mom has a pretty dress and you're not even wearing jeans!"

"We had a vampire picking out our closet," Clint said, trying to get Katie to smile. "It was pretty weird."

"Was it scary?"

"Yeah."

"Did he try an' suck your blood?"

"Oh yeah," Clint said, nodding seriously. "But I told him I wouldn't let 'im turn me into a vampire like him."

"Right, 'cause of how you're gonna be a superhero," Katie said, nodding and bouncing along beside her big brother as they led the way to Hank's lab, clearly  _thrilled_ to have Clint back.

Of course, once they actually got to the lab, Hank was disappointed but not entirely surprised to see that Clint  _clearly_ didn't want to be there. But K was frowning especially hard at the fact that Clint wasn't really  _arguing_ it; he was just quietly curled up and clearly doing his best to look small and quiet, since he hadn't been able to argue with Sinister.

"Hey. Want me to punch him in the nose?" K said to Clint quietly

Clint shook his head. "I'm okay."

"Don't lie to me, sweetheart."

Clint let out a breath and shifted slightly. "You don't have to hit him."

"No, but I will." She shrugged at Hank. "Nothing personal."

"Yes, I'm sure I won't find anything personal about being punched in the nose," Hank said with a smirk her way.

"Would you prefer somewhere else?"

Hank chuckled, then tipped his head Clint's way. "We just need to make sure you don't have any trackers in you, but if you prefer, I can give you something that will allow you to sleep through it. I don't want you to be too anxious."

Clint glanced at K and then shook his head quietly. "I'm okay."

"Want some company?" K asked, already handing James over to Logan.

Clint nodded and scooted over to make room for K while Hank got him set up, and she just stayed close by so that when Hank was finished, Clint could more or less attach to her, grateful when Hank said he was clean so he could just…  _not_ deal with anything else.

"Hey, you're all set, troubles," K told him as she kissed his forehead.

"Yeah, I know," Clint said quietly, then switched to sign.  _I don't want to tell anybody._

_They're going to need to know. It's just hard because I can't hurt anyone over it now._

_But I don't want anyone to know I'm different,_ Clint insisted.  _I just want to be me._

 _You are,_ K insisted, carefully signing the words.  _No one can change that._

Clint let out a sigh and leaned into K.  _Okay, fine._

 _Do you want me to do it instead?_ K offered.  _I can make them behave._

Clint thought about it for a second and then nodded.  _Okay._

_Do you want to go up with Katie to start the movie?_

_Yes. That's a good idea,_ Clint said, hopping down to go grab Katie.

K smiled at him then spoke up for Katie to catch it too. "You two can pick out a few good movies, can't you? Give Logan and me a chance to go through the check too?"

"Okay!" Katie grinned at K and held Clint's hand a little tighter. "C'mon, Clint. We're gonna go get some popcorn and stuff."

K turned to Hank and held up both arms. "Make it quick, please. And then … we need to talk."

"I'll do what I can to make this painless," he promised, already getting down to work.

K held still and watched Logan, who was honestly just waiting for the other shoe to drop. "So it's going to be a little … unsatisfying, to say the least," she said when she knew it was just them. "But Sinister changed Clint."

Hank frowned. "You were only gone for a few days," he said slowly, though it looked like he was starting to get an idea of it.

"I know," she said, nodding. "But it happened all the same."

"How extensively?" Hank asked, suddenly a bit more businesslike as he tried to get more information without involving Clint.

"He's healing now," she said. "He told Clint that he took whatever it was that he used from me."

Hank let out a breath and obviously made an effort to keep his temper. "I see."

"I don't know when he did … whatever it was," K said, looking more frustrated herself. "I wasn't really  _awake_ for most of it."

"If you like, I could look," Charles offered softly.

K frowned at him for that, though. "You'd have to ask Clint. I doubt you'd find anything worthwhile with me. But … I guess feel free if you think it might help."

Charles nodded softly. "It might be easier if I look into Clint's memory of it to give us all some clarity, though I may ask all three of you to work with me. When we arrived, Clint was unconscious, and if you were asleep for some time as well, we may have to piece it together."

"Sure, Charlie," Logan said in a rumble as he handed James back to K so Hank could get started on him, too. "Whenever you're ready."

* * *

For a couple days after the Howlett family was back together, the X-Men simply didn't see much of Clint. At all. They saw K with James, and they saw Logan doing things one-handed while Katie attached to him and refused to let him put her down because she  _missed her Daddy sooooo much_. But Clint was nowhere to be seen (and neither was Arrow).

Not that anyone could blame him. Dealing with Sinister was bad enough, but to have such dramatic changes to deal with too… He had every reason to be upset.

Eventually, though, Jean decided to go looking — because she wasn't sure Logan and K's decision to let him hide away was  _helpful_ with such a social little boy… and because she was honestly worried about him.

She somehow wasn't surprised that Clint was hidden out in the trees with Arrow, skipping stones across the lake on the far side around a bend in the water that hid him from sight at the dock. He looked up when he heard her coming and then went back to skipping stones while Arrow helpfully nosed around the rocks and looked for pets.

"Hi, Jean," Clint said as he got four skips in a row. "You cheated, huh?"

"It's not  _really_ cheating," she defended.

"Yeah, it is," Clint said, glancing up at her before he sat down at the base of one of the trees and leaned back. "Did Mom tell you or did you hear from Dr. Blue?"

"Actually, Charles has been working with your parents to try and piece the whole thing together."

Clint nodded. "Yeah, Katie told me she's going with Dad to see Professor X and he lets her color while they're doing stuff."

"You could go with K," Jean said. "Or I could help if you don't want Charles."

Clint shrugged. "I don't really want to," he admitted, turning a flat rock over in one hand and twisting it through his fingers.

"To be honest, they don't really want to either," Jean said as she took a seat nearby and started looking through the rocks for more flat ones.

"Yeah, but they don't actually know anything," Clint said. "Mom got knocked out, and Dad wasn't there."

"We got more from her than she thought," Jean said. "The breaks between when she  _was_ awake were pretty important."

Despite his attempts to stay out of it, Clint couldn't help but glance up at Jean. "Really?"

"Really. She wasn't out as much as she thought — at least not where Sinister was concerned."

"Oh. I guess I wouldn't know," Clint said. "I don't remember a lot of it either."

"That's what I'm thinking," Jean said. "He blocked a lot of her memories, and he likely did the same to you."

"Yeah, but…" Clint took a deep breath and held it before he glanced up at Jean. "I don't think I  _want_ to remember it. Mom said I was hurt."

Jean nodded. "We don't have to let you remember that stuff," she offered. "We just want to know what he was trying to do — and if he managed it entirely."

Clint shifted. "Yeah, I know," he said. "But I don't want anyone to treat me any different. I thought I wasn't supposed to have powers, and I just… want to be an archer archeologist hero."

"Clint, we're the last people in the world that would treat you any differently," Jean said with a warm smile. "And nothing says you can't be an archer archeologist hero."

Clint watched her for a long time before he took a deep breath and nodded. "Okay," he said slowly. "But if I let you see… you have to promise you won't tell anyone about how—" He swallowed. "About how I didn't fight him like I should've."

"Would it help if I told you that neither of your parents fought him either?"

"They were bein' carried and stuff, though," Clint said quietly, letting the stone drop out of his fingers as he looked toward the lake. "I just went with him because I was scared."

"He would have made you go anyhow," Jean said. "And it was to escape, right?"

Clint nodded softly. "He got us out of the department. They were making Dad work for them, and they wanted to use me to make people heal."

Jean nodded at that. "He already told us what they sent him to do," she said. "And the guards handling him were pretty stupid about keeping their mouths shut on what they knew. Especially when they thought they were going to be able to taunt him."

"Did he stab 'em?"

"Please. This  _is_ Logan we're talking about."

Clint snorted at that. "What about the guy he threw a helmet at? He got knocked out, but Dad was saying he was gonna track him down…"

Jean shook her head at that. "Ah … he broke that guy's back. It didn't kill him, but he'll never walk or pick up his arms again."

"Ouch." Clint scrunched up his nose. When Jean nodded, Clint finally let out a breath and scooted over to be closer to Jean. "If I let you look, can you promise I won't see the part where I got hurt? Because Mom said I lost a lot of blood, and it's freaking me out."

Jean nodded at that. "I won't let you see anything if you don't want me to."

"Okay," Clint said. "But only because I know everyone's worried."

Jean smiled at that and scooted over so she could wrap him up in a hug. "I'm sorry this happened."

"Me too," Clint said, almost hiding in the hug, then switched to projecting as he  _tried_ to open up a little for Jean.  _Especially because I know Mom and Dad are so messed up about it._

_It's harder for them to process things when they can't do anything about it._

_I asked Mom not to fight him,_ Clint admitted.  _Maybe I should've let her._

 _Why do you think he kept her out for as much as he did, Clint_? Jean projected, going so far as to show him K's point of view of when she wasn't quite under enough and she  _did_ rush to attack him. That way, Clint could see the look of sheer  _shock_ on Sinister's face at the sudden snarling lunge.

Clint couldn't help but smirk.  _No one can stand up to my mom when she's awake._

 _No one with any self preservation,_ Jean replied, and he could hear the amusement in her projection.

Clint nodded and then closed his eyes.  _Okay,_ he said.  _You can look, I guess. But then we need ice cream. That's the deal._

 _You got it,_  Jean promised, then handed him a perfectly round, smooth, and flat stone, just for something he could focus on before she very gently slipped into his memories. She was quick, and her touch was light — and it really didn't take her too long when she was being so careful to keep him unaware of what she was seeing. When she was done, she frowned to herself. "How does Rocky Road sound to you?"

"Can we get chocolate chunk and bring some to Katie?" Clint asked. "She was real sad about Dad being gone."

"Whenever you're ready," Jean said as she got to her feet.

Clint nodded and skipped the rock in his hand — six skips — and then smirked up at Jean. "So, ice cream when you're done… do we need a couch like the professor uses?"

"We're already done, Clint."

"Oh. Really?" Clint blinked at her. "I don't feel any different."

Jean nodded with a little smile. "Well,  _I_ don't damage people when I look into their minds."

Clint smirked at that and then shifted slightly, running his hand through his hair until Arrow came over for pets. "So… so did you see all the stuff you needed?"

Jean nodded. "I think so. If you don't remember anything, then he actually did a good job of protecting you."

"He was being  _weirdly_ nice," Clint told her, wrinkling up his nose as they started to walk back together. "He even asked me to find out the names of people who were mean to me."

"The guards, yes," Jean said. "He was being … honestly, he was being a manipulative jerk. Not that I'm surprised."

"I know," Clint said.

"But it doesn't matter," Jean said. "Because he can't do anything now."

"Yeah…" Clint looked up at Jean with his head tipped to the side. "Okay, but like… how come we got rescued by  _another_ supervillain? No one told me what the story was."

"Oh, well," Jean slowed down and put her arm around his shoulders. "We didn't know it, but it turns out that Erik had met him when  _he_ was a kid, too. He was working in a concentration camp, bribing kids with candy to get blood samples. Erik never forgot it … and  _apparently_ , when Erik was little, the kids called Sinister 'Nosferatu' behind his back. Because they thought he looked like a vampire too."

"Because he  _does_ ," Clint said with a smirk.

"Did," Jean corrected.

"Right." Clint let his shoulders drop. "I'm glad he's gone, though. I bet you're glad too, because he was bothering your family too."

"I really am," she said. "He bothered Scott for most of his life, and it seems like Logan too.… It's a relief that our kids won't have to put up with him."

"Yeah, he would have bothered Rachel a  _lot_ ," Clint said, scrunching up his nose. "And the twins… and James… d'you think he would have messed with Katie too if she ends up being a mutant?"

"Probably," Jean admitted.

"Then I'm  _super_ glad he's gone, because I woulda had to kill him if he messed with your kids and my sisters." He let out a breath and then gave Jean's arm a squeeze. "Is, um, is Scott okay? Because that guy messed him up a lot, and I'm not really okay, and maybe he isn't…"

"Scott … still can't believe it."

"Yeah, because he was  _really_ hard to kill. We had to get, like, the Cryptkeeper to come and behead the vampire."

"Which … I think your mom was going to do if Erik didn't," Jean teased.

"Oh, I know she was," Clint said. "That's why he was scared of her."

"Huh. Wasn't as stupid as you gave him credit for."

Clint snorted outright. "Yeah, I  _guess_."

Jean let Clint scoop out the ice cream once they got to the kitchen, and while he was preoccupied, she reached out to let Charles know what it was she'd found out, doing a fine job of keeping her expression neutral.

 _We should tell Logan and K,_ Charles projected back to her.  _They need to know how extensive the changes were._ It was obvious he was also doing what he could to keep his tone calm, though she could hear the anger in it.  _We're lucky they were right and that Clint's unique situation kept him from losing his mind. No wonder the department was interested._

 _They're taking a moment alone,_ Jean replied.  _But I'll leave that to you._

 _Yes, you have chocolate chunk to eat,_ Charles replied, obviously smirking.

_I doubt they'll be able to be alone for long. James is giving Kurt a hard time and gets anxious with us now when they're out of sight._

_Hopefully, he will grow out of that soon,_ Charles said, sounding honestly forlorn — he really did enjoy playing with all of the little ones.

 _It was traumatic,_ Jean said.  _And he's so little. He'll get past it, I'm sure._

 _I'm sure,_ Charles agreed.

"Who you talking to?" Clint asked, breaking into the conversation. "You're doing better at your poker face, but you looked sadder all of a sudden. What's up?"

"James is a little afraid his parents are going to disappear," Jean said.

"Yeah, he's been pretty attached," Clint said, nodding seriously. "Katie told me she was scared she was gonna lose another dad," he added in a softer whisper. "I think they both got hurt."

"They did," Jean said. "It was pretty horrible for them. James even quit crying after a while."

"Well, that guy's dead now," Clint said.

"It'll still take a while for him to know they won't just disappear on him again."

"Well, we'll just go hide in the Avengers Tower for a summer vacation and we won't have any big problems except maybe Hydra — and Mom can totally kick Hydra butt left and right, so we'll be okay." Clint leaned forward, closer to Jean. "I told Captain America how the X-Men have scarier villains, and he didn't believe me 'til I told him about Mr. Sinister."

"Captain America wasn't exactly happy about that, either."

"Nope. He was pretty upset," Clint agreed. "But … Mom talked to me about it, and we decided that's good, because it means that our friends can help each other."

"As long as it all works out, yes, yes we can," Jean agreed. "But … you said Katie needed some ice cream too?"

"Uh-huh. Chocolate stuff," Clint said with a smile. "She loves as much chocolate as you can pack into stuff." He paused. " _And_ … one time, Mom got us coffee-flavored stuff, and me and Katie both think it's the  _best_."

"Aren't you a little young to be getting started on coffee?"

"Mom says she started drinking it when she was  _little_. Like … Katie's age." Clint looked at Jean crooked and then smirked. "Besides, I read Hank's lips when he was talking to my dad, and I know I'm a pretty good healer even if I'm not as good as Mom and Dad. I know coffee ain't gonna hurt me."

"Are you going to take the chance, though?" Jean teased. "That might be why she's so tiny…"

Clint gestured at himself. "I'm already taller than Mom and Dad. I'll be fine."

Jean shrugged. "You say that like it's  _hard_ to be taller than them …"

"They looked taller when I was seven."

"They're tiny," she said. "Both of them."

Clint chuckled and shook his head. "Yeah, but I love 'em anyway." He tipped his head. "Besides, I've got some of Mom in me now. Might make me short  _and_ healing. I guess we'll just see, huh?"

"I guess so," she agreed as they picked up their ice cream and Jean directed him toward where Katie was playing.


	11. Steve Finds Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Steve Rogers is not. happy.

 

* * *

For the next couple of months until the end of the school semester, things for the little Howlett family were mercifully quiet. Katie  _eventually_ stopped making Logan do everything one-handed, even if she was still in the habit of just shouting "Daddy!" at Logan at random intervals and running over to get thrown in the air and snuggled… and James was starting to let other people hold him.

And Clint was doing a little better too, mostly because things didn't feel too different. Even if he was healing, he didn't have claws or anything, and the only real difference in his life was that he didn't run through Band-aid boxes as often… and the fact that he didn't need his hearing aide anymore, which was kind of weird in and of itself. Everyone sounded so much louder and clearer, and that had taken some getting used to.

So when they headed to the Avengers for the summer — bringing Hank and Susie with them, too, to keep the family together — Thor seemed unusually loud when he greeted them. Clint wasn't used to getting the full Asgardian experience, clearly.

Not that he had time to really think on it when they were getting mobbed by everyone else. Jan was already making Clint over, and Carol wanted to talk to K. And there were some introductions to be made, too, with a set of twins that had joined the Avengers named Wanda and Pietro.

"You look kinda familiar," Clint told Pietro when they were introduced, though he couldn't quite place it.

"We haven't been on the team very long," Wanda said.

"Well, where were you before that? Didja ever go to my brother's circus or maybe grow up in Iowa or something?" Clint asked. "Because I feel like I've seen you before."

"Ah, no. On both counts," Pietro said, shaking his head as he stepped back.

"Didja used to be bad guys?" Katie piped up. "My Clint fights lots of those even if he's not a junior X-Man yet!"

"Of course he does. Clint doesn't slow down for anybody," Jan said, grinning and ruffling Clint's hair.

"It's because I'm so awesome all the bad guys know they have to get me before I can grow up to kick their butts even harder," Clint said with a quiet smirk.

"Kid knows where he's going," Tony chuckled — though when he came to stand by Jan and they were holding hands, Clint grinned crookedly at both of them.

"Knew you'd get 'im," he told Jan in a mock whisper.

"Me too," she whispered back.

Clint grinned her way and then pointed at Tony. "Last person who hurt her got screwed, so you're gonna be good, right?"

"Wait, when did you get a tiny big brother?" Tony teased Jan.

"Like, a few years ago. Keep up," Jan teased and kissed his cheek.

Clint grinned — and then started to laugh when he looked past Jan and realized that Katie had managed to monopolize Thor's attention entirely. She'd half climbed up his side until he picked her up, and they were chatting away in Korean, clearly delighting Katie.

Steve was headed over Clint's way, and Clint grinned at him. "Katie doesn't get to do that except some with Dad — and Mom and I are trying to learn it."

"I'm sure you'll pick it up fast enough," Jan said. "Smart guy that you are."

Clint nodded at that. "Hey, I know some Swedish  _and_ I know sign and English, so I'm already ahead of the game."

"You really are," she agreed. "I saw your parents flirting in Japanese too. You guys are going to be the most multilingual family around."

Clint grinned. "And James is going to learn  _all_ of them."

"I'm sure he will," Jan said, turning to look for him.

Clint smirked and pointed Jan toward where Logan was with James. "You need to hold a baby. And then make Tony do it too."

"Hey now," Tony said.

"I'm right," Clint said decisively, pushing Tony's arm to get him to move — while Jan was already skipping off. He grinned, crossed his arms, and leaned back, smirking Steve's way. "You guys're gonna have a little bitty baby at the tower pretty soon, huh?"

"Only if you count James," Steve said. "I doubt Jan's going to get her way as quickly as she'd like."

"Mom says once you're married, you just do what your wife says."

"She would say that," Steve laughed.

"I think she's right, though," Clint said. "Because she and my dad are in love all the time and that's what they do." He paused. "And my birth family was the opposite, and they didn't do so good, so…"

"She's skipping the part where she does what he wants, too," Steve said, smirking a little.

"Yeah, they  _did_ have a baby, and I know he wanted one," Clint said with a shrug. "And he brought home Katie and Susie too." He grinned and looked toward Katie again. "I like having 'em around."

"Then it's a good thing he did that," Steve said as he took a seat and glanced down the hall. "Do you know if your mom had plans with Carol before she got here?"

"No, but she likes Carol, and she was kind of sad she couldn't do so much when she was pregnant, so that makes sense they're talking," Clint said with an easy shrug. "They're probably gonna destroy Hydra by the end of the week."

"I wouldn't be surprised," Steve said with a little laugh. "They kicked me out."

"Well, there ya go," Clint said, grinning crookedly. "Maybe you and me can do stuff. I can show you what Dad taught me about how to fight! I'm gonna be on the junior team in a couple years, you know!"

"I might have heard that rumor."

"Well, it's true," Clint said, drawing himself up. "And in the fall, I'm gonna be in Dad's class with the kids at the school for combat and stuff. And Mom has been helping me with archery, and Kurt helps me with swords, so I can fight with knives, arrows, swords, guns, and fists." He listed them all off on his fingers. "If there's any Hydra left when Mom and Carol are done, I'll take care of 'em!"

"Might be why they're plotting," Steve said with a crooked smile. "But it sounds like you're learning a  _lot_ for a kid your age."

"Hey, there are some really bad people after my family. I gotta keep up!" Clint said.

Steve held up both hands. "I'm not arguing with you on that. I've had to deal with more crap just from you three than I have for most people."

"Mom says it's because they're trying to learn how to distill awesome."

Steve laughed outright at that. "Sounds like her."

Clint grinned and then grabbed Steve's arm. "Come on. I can show you how I can write Mom's name in arrows and stuff!" With that, he started to pull Steve along. "For real. I helped Mom do some hunting this winter and everything!"

"Oh yeah? What else did you guys get up to?"

"I'm trying to teach Katie about how to be safe with weapons so she can learn to shoot a bow when she's strong enough to pull it back," Clint told Steve.

"Of course. What was I thinking? Every Kindergartener needs to know that."

"Mom's already teaching Katie and Susie all about horses, too," Clint said. "We're gonna learn to shoot on horseback!"

"You guys are going to have the best childhood … in between attacks, of course."

Clint made a face at that. "Yeah. There are  _seriously_ stupid people, Cap," he said. "They grabbed me and my parents a couple months ago, and it was the  _worst_."

"I didn't hear about that," Steve said, looking honestly concerned. "What happened?"

"You remember that department that wants my mom and dad?"

"Yeah, I do. Did they come after you again?"

Clint nodded. "We got out, but it was the  _worst_. That's why I've been working with Mom and Dad a  _lot_." He shrugged, but he didn't want to talk about the worst of it — that he was mostly working with his parents to figure out how to deal with the healing, since he was still getting hurt and running headlong into trouble, and the tingling healing sensation really  _bothered_ him.

"You say things like that, and it makes me glad they're there for you, but it also makes me want to go crack your dad for not telling me anything."

"Katie didn't let him do anything without her for, like, three weeks," Clint defended. "She was real upset we were gone. You know, because her dad died in front of her when she was little."

Steve nodded at that. "Still kinda want to hit him."

"Yeah, well, Kurt says that's a constant," Clint said with a smirk. "You can talk to him about it, 'cause he said he'd come and visit on weekends so I can still keep learning to fence with him. He's helping me learn how to use my right hand too!"

Steve really had no idea on how to handle Clint being so positive on his weapons training and so clearly avoiding talking about absolutely anything else. So he did the only thing he could think of: "Does that mean you think you're ready to run a sim?"

"Oh yeah. I can take on anything you got!" Clint said, drawing himself up confidently.

"Our training programs aren't like the hard-light holograms in Westchester," Steve warned. "We've got life model decoys."

"Okay, well, just tell me where to shoot them to make it count," Clint said.

"Just like you'd shoot anyone that was real," Steve said.

"Okay, well, are they robots or people? Because if they're  _people,_ then I don't want to kill 'em — but if we're fighting robots, then you always take head shots on not-people so they stay down. That's what Dad says."

Steve smirked at that. "Yeah, but these are real enough that they've fooled people into thinking they were real people."

"Oh, wow."

"Come on, we'll give you something to do that doesn't involve watching Jan melt into a puddle."

Clint grinned, clearly thrilled, as they headed down to where the training room was and he told Steve all about all the training he was getting up to and how he was going to help K teach Katie to stick up for herself since the bad guys were gonna keep coming after their family and how he kept trying to talk Scott into letting him join the team sooner than when he was thirteen but Scott wasn't budging… All of it. He was clearly proud, and Steve couldn't help but smile at his enthusiasm.

And it was even more fun to watch Clint once they did get a sim started, because he was having a  _blast_. Steve could see some of his brother slipping out in the showmanship as he twirled his bow around before he started taking his shots, and then when Steve suggested switching weapons, Clint did a spectacular twirl into one of the simulated Hydra soldiers to put his sword through a few joints. And again, that was down to being trained by a circus performer — this time Kurt.

It was both entertaining and hard to watch, since there were a few times that Clint — still a beginner, after all — simply didn't see an LMD coming and took a few hard falls. But he would get up every time and dive right back in, leaving Steve wondering if he should call it or keep going.

Eventually, Clint started to get a little sloppier, and Steve figured that was a good place to stop before the kid wore himself out. He called it, and Clint put his weapons over on the rack, sporting a big bruise on his cheekbone and a few cuts — but the biggest grin Steve had seen him wear yet.

"See?" Clint said. "I toldja I'm good!"

"Yeah, you sure are," Steve said, though he was wondering how upset his parents were going to be when Clint came back from  _one sim_ with cuts and bruises. Already. "Let's get you washed up, huh?"

Clint grinned and nodded. "So what do you think?" he asked, almost bouncing with every step. "I'm going to be an X-Man  _and_ an Avenger once I'm old enough! Like Dad!"

"You're well on the path," Steve chuckled.

Clint looked perfectly proud of himself, grinning as he grabbed a towel and headed to the showers off the training room, leaving Steve shaking his head. Clint really was a good fit for Logan and K — an unstoppable force like the two of them were.

A while later — after Steve had time to review the tape and be a bit more impressed now that he was watching without also worrying about the cuts and bruises he couldn't do anything about  _now_ — Clint came out of the showers and waved Steve's way, looking like new.

"Did you catch it when I got those two shots in, like, a few seconds of each other? That was pretty cool, right?"

"It really was," Steve said, grinning. But he quickly did a little double take when he realized that, unlike just a short time ago, Clint didn't have a bump or bruise on him.

Clint seemed oblivious for the moment, still riding the high of convincing  _Captain America_ to let him show off. "I bet I could learn to do a double shot if I work on it, and then I can get even faster," he said. "Can I see?"

"We're going to have trouble keeping you in arrows," Steve said.

"Dad says he knows a guy."

"It's probably whoever's pulling ninja's arrows out of him," Steve said dryly.

Clint snorted. "Maybe. But I told Mom I want to do like the Green Hornet does on TV and have, like, some gadgets and stuff. Do you think I could do that? I bet I could do it."

"I'll bet she can convince Tony to make something like that for you," Steve said.

"I bet if I tell Jan to ask Tony, I'll have all the arrows I want forever," Clint snorted.

"Jan will want to make sure you're not going to get  _hurt,_ too," Steve said, giving Clint a significant look, but Clint either didn't understand the hint Steve was giving him or didn't want to talk about it.

"I'm okay," Clint said with a shrug. "I'm pretty tough, you know."

"Oh sure; you'd have to be, living with who you do," Steve teased.

Clint grinned crookedly. "Mom taught me some great stuff before we even met Logan. I told him I'd neuter 'im if he ever hurt Mom."

But that had Steve chuckling to himself. "Good for you. Put some fear into him."

"I don't think I  _really_ scared him. Dad isn't scared of much," Clint admitted, his hands in his pockets as he shrugged easily.

"No, but it's the thought that counts, and a threat like that to Logan is a statement," Steve said.

"Hey, I take care of my mom," Clint said, tipping his chin up.

"Sure do," he said. "Why don't you go find out what she and Carol are up to? Since you're protecting her."

"You just want to use me like a spy," Clint teased.

"Maybe a little," Steve said. "But I figure you won't worry about too much unless she's planning to take on the Red Skull."

"Yeah, if she's doing that, she needs Dad too."

"Yeah, at least," Steve laughed.

Clint grinned and gave Steve a two-fingered salute before he headed off to go find his mom so he could brag about how well he'd done. And Steve went upstairs as well, this time in search of Logan.

"So," Steve said as he came up on Logan and James, who had gotten fussy for Jan. "How long has Clint been healing?"

"Surprised he told you," Logan said.

"He didn't," Steve said. "He was showing off what he's been learning on weapons training, and fifteen minutes after the sim, you wouldn't have known he even got a papercut."

"Yah, well … no one was real thrilled about that, if you want to know the truth."

"I do, actually, want to know the truth," Steve said.

Logan tipped his head to see that no one was headed their way. "It was when Weapon X picked us up. The three of us. Sinister was working with 'em, and he gave Clint K's healing."

Steve looked for a moment like he didn't know what to address first: the fact that all three of them had been with the department, the fact that Sinister was working with them, or… "He what?"

"Listen, that's what the guy used to do; I don't know how to put it any more plain than that."

"But why?" Steve asked. "Why pick on Clint?"

"From what I can piece together? Clint already healed a little on his own. He's got the mutant gene; it's just in the wrong spot. So, Sinister … adjusted that. Boosted him with K's healing."

Steve was transitioning from shock to anger by that point. "I'm going to go out on a limb and guess it wasn't just because they wanted Clint to match his parents."

"No, it wasn't," Logan said. "When we got back, K took about a week every night and went out of her way diggin' hard on 'em. Found out Sinister really did wreck  _most_ of their research on the kid. Only there was one memo between higher-ups about a  _young_ test subject that might be the key stepping stone to making totally 'normal' humans into healers."

"So it's the same song and dance as always."

"You shouldn't be surprised," Logan said.

"I really shouldn't," Steve said, shaking his head.

"Only thing that's new is that I found out I'm not an ideal  _donor_."

"Well, that  _is_ new," Steve said, one eyebrow raised.

Logan looked more irritated at that though. "They had her in stasis, Cap."

Steve narrowed his eyes. "So they were just …" His expression twisted. "...using her as a supplier for their experiments?"

"Looks like."

"And you're sure that research is destroyed?" Steve asked.

"It is now," he said in a drawl. "She sent 'em a little electronic present that she stole from Stark."

Steve smirked at that. "Sounds about right."

"I doubt they can even get anything to boot up at this point."

"Good." Steve shook his head. "That kid is  _ten_. There is  _no_ reason—"

"Yeah. Well. They were pushin' for the baby, too," Logan said. "From what Clint remembered, anyhow. That was the trigger that had Sinister pickin' up stakes and moving us out."

Steve shook his head. "Every time you come back, you have a story that makes me want to take a walk with you and tear up the place."

"Do that an' no one'll be watchin' to see what the hell K and Carol are up to."

"Your son is convinced they're conspiring to destroy Hydra on their own." Steve smirked. "He's probably right."

"She's in a mood."

"After what you told me? I don't blame her."

"Can't really blame 'er," Logan said. "Just hard to balance out when I know she won't let me get away with takin' off to fight without her on this one. And I'd like to keep this group together, you know?"

"You've got a great family, Logan. Seriously," Steve said, smiling despite himself. "They're all a little cracked to match you."

"Lucky thing," Logan deadpanned. "We just gotta find you one that don't mind a kickline in the background."

"Yeah, get on that," Steve chuckled. "That's your project while the girls are dismantling Hydra."

"Oh, no," Logan said, shaking his head. "You gotta find your own girl."

"Mine won't have kickline clearance, though," Steve teased.

"Maybe yours'll be  _on_ the kickline."

"I'll keep my eyes open."


	12. Clint's First Crush

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Clint *gasp* likes a girl!

 

* * *

Carol and K had disappeared together on their "girls trip," and the Avengers as a whole couldn't seem to decide if that was a good thing or not … or if they wanted to join them.

But in the meantime, Kurt came over that weekend as promised so he and Clint could practice fencing, and they found themselves attracting an audience of interested and bored Avengers - with Jan bringing popcorn to share with Wanda and Thor while Thor called out encouragement, spurred on by Katie, who was sitting on his lap and being the best possible cheerleader.

"Do you do this every weekend?" Wanda asked, genuinely curious, since she hadn't been around the last time Clint and his family had stayed the summer.

Clint nodded, drawing himself up a little taller with a faint blush high on his cheeks that had Jan smirking hard to herself. "I didn't want to lose all the good work I did on fencing, especially because my brother's so good at it and he's doing a solo weapons master act in the circus this year, so I can't let him outdo me, you know?"

"Oh, I didn't know that," Wanda said. "How much older is he?"

"Not  _that_ much older," Clint said almost defensively.

Wanda smiled at him. "Then he must be very good."

"I can outshoot him," Clint said quickly, turning somehow redder.

"You certainly can," Kurt said, smiling as he put a hand on Clint's shoulder and then giving Wanda a little bow. "And of course, with a fencing teacher like me…"

" _And_ I'm learning how to fight from my dad," Clint put in. "Cap let me run a sim so I could show him. I could show you!"

"Oh, I'm already so impressed with your fencing," Wanda said, obviously enchanted with the little boy.

Clint grinned and stood a little taller. "Yeah, well, I'm pretty awesome," he said, too caught up in trying not to blush too hard to notice that Carol and K had come back until K came to sit by Wanda.

 _Are you going to let me meet your girlfriend?_ K signed to Clint.

Clint blinked at K and then turned an even brighter red.  _What? No… I was… Swords?_

 _Uh huh._   _You're just as puffed up as Barney around acrobats._

_I'm not that bad!_

_You so are._

Clint turned redder, rubbing a hand in his hair even as Kurt smiled and waved at the two women. "Did you have a nice excursion?" Kurt asked.

"Lovely," Carol said. "Regular girl's night out."

"Didja take down Hydra?" Clint asked, glad for the subject change and trying hard not to look over at Wanda at that point — even if she  _was_ pretty and he liked her accent.

"I don't know what you're talking about," K said.

"C'mon, Mom," Clint said. "At least tell me if you got the Red Skull or not!"

"If we had, it would have been on the news," K replied. "No news that's newsworthy, right?"

"Mo-o-o-o-o-m. Please? I wanna know!"

"She's tellin' you to pay attention to the news," Logan said as he and James caught up to the group. "Or you won't have clue one as to what they were up to. Ever. She likes to leave mysterious headlines."

"But the headline never tells the whole story."

"Which is why she likes 'em," Logan said before he stole a kiss and let James lean over to maul K.

"You missed Clint turning red," Katie sang out to K.

"Oh, did I?" K asked, perfectly content wrapped up in Logan and James. "Why was he red, sweetheart?"

"Because Miss Wanda is pretty," Katie said, totally busting Clint out.

"Is he just as  _in loooove_ as Barney is?" K called out sweetly.

"Uh-huh! They make the same face!"

Clint shook his head hard. "Do not!"

"Sure you do," Logan said, smirking. "Only blonder."

"It's not his fault," Kurt said with a smirk — and Clint was just about to thank him until he realized that Kurt was smiling at Wanda. "He has good taste."

"Oh come on!" Clint said, throwing up both hands — and getting Katie to laugh so hard she was using Thor to stay upright.

"We were only coming to watch the fencing lesson," Wanda said, though K didn't miss that she was blushing Kurt's way.

"So, how long have you two been flirting?" K asked Kurt. "Or is it just an instant thing that happens?"

"It was like a light switch," Jan giggled delightedly.

"What can I say?" Kurt said, smiling unashamedly and shrugging openly. "I know beauty when I see it."

"And you have no self control?" K asked with a smirk.

"Why would I want such a thing?" Kurt teased right back.

"No idea," K agreed. "Sounds overrated to me."

"Do you two want to be alone?" Wanda laughed.

"Was that an offer to babysit?" K asked with a growing grin. "Because I can think of a few things to do …"

Wanda laughed outright. "Sure," she said. "James and I get along, actually."

"Doubt that'll work," Logan said, and James illustrated how right Logan was when he grabbed a two handfuls of K's hair and held on tight, snuggling in and trying to give her kisses.

"We'll just take him along and snuggle up," K said. "I'm a little tired and could use the quiet."

"Offer's open," Wanda said.

"Good to know," K said, waving at her as the three of them headed off. "Katie, you're in charge of your brother!"

Katie grinned, tapped her nose, and then pointed at Clint. "You heard! I'm in charge! So you have to not be flirting!"

"Mom!"

"It's out of my hands!" K called back. "She's in charge; it's too late!"

"You have to do bows and arrows with me now!" Katie sang out.

Clint let out a breath. "Okay, alright. That actually  _is_ fun."

"Yeah, and I'm gonna be better than you!"

"You are not."

"Am so! You gotta pro-o-o-o-ove it!"

Clint let out a noise of frustration as Katie slipped off of Thor's lap and took off running — so that he had to chase her to catch up.

Steve was still chuckling to himself as the kids left before he turned to Carol — the smile still in place. "Really: what were you two up to?"

"Did Logan tell you about that worm they put in Department H's servers?" Carol asked with a quiet smirk.

"He did …" Steve said slowly. "Why …"

"We thought it might be fun to do the same to Hydra's servers," Carol said with a shrug. "And interestingly, a few of my old SWORD contacts called me up… Apparently, SHIELD had a few computers go down with my symbol on them. Fancy that."

"I thought she liked the  _mysterious_ headlines," Steve said. "That seems a little… obvious."

"She does, but I wanted to pick a fight, and she agreed to join me," Carol said with a shrug. "I was getting tired of Hydra sniffing around the edges of our team. I'd rather fight them head on."

"Well … that might explain why Fury's been so busy."

"He's got a few moles, apparently."

"I'll let him know you  _both_ deserve the flowers," Steve said, shaking his head.

Carol grinned at him as she leaned back. "Hydra will hit back, you know. Probably want to keep your eyes open."

"Yeah, well considering how this family draws in trouble … I don't know if we can avoid it."

"You're worried, aren't you?" Carol asked, turning his way.

"After all the crap they've been through lately?" Steve was nodding his head lightly and staring at her as if she'd lost her mind. "I'd be stupid not to be."

Carol gave him a dry look. "Don't bite my head off, Steve. I'm just as protective of them as you are."

"I just can't believe she's picking fights so fast," Steve said.

"She wiped out the department's servers. She was on a roll. You know how that can be," Carol defended.

"Yeah, well, did she tell you  _why_ she wiped out the department's servers?"

"They captured her family. It was a hit job," Carol said with a shrug.

"They experimented on her family."

Carol paused. "All of them? I know about her and Logan, but—"

"They didn't get to James or Katie, but they had Clint."

Carol blinked for a moment and then got to her feet. "Well that's something I'd have liked to know before!" she said. "When do we  _destroy_ them? That kid is  _ten_!"

"They had a target on James, too," Steve said.

"Seriously, Steve. When are we dismantling them?"

"Crack Logan or K," Steve said. "They're the ones that know where all the locations are. Or … how to find them."

"I'll talk to K, then," Carol said.

"Might want to give her time to recharge," Steve said. "I'm told she can be a little growly when she gets interrupted after something like a mission. Even if, officially, it didn't happen, I'm guessing."

Carol waved a hand. "Still not sorry. I like my new partner in crime."

"Of course you do," he laughed.

"Like you don't love having your old war buddy around," Carol teased.

"Yeah, it's been great. Lots of babysitting."

"So when are you going to get one of your own?" Carol asked. "You're making a face, Steve."

"You're just as bad as Logan."

"Then I must be right," Carol decided, flashing a crooked grin his way before she all but flounced away.


	13. You're Gonna Get It!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Katie is so done with stupid people.

 

* * *

Clint was still trying  _very_ hard to be impressive for Wanda.

It was honestly endearing, and it was obvious Wanda was trying to build up his confidence without destroying him by pointing out that she had Kurt's phone number and had been talking with him every night, but Katie wasn't nearly as subtle as that and kept singing "Clint and Wanda sitting in a tree!" at the top of her lungs.

When Clint looked like he was going to turn almost as purple as his tee shirt, Steve finally decided to step in and offered to take Katie out for breakfast — freeing up Logan and K to spend the morning together while Clint tried to convince Wanda to run a sim with him or listen to a story about how he'd stabbed Sabretooth in the heart one time…

Katie was making a face as she headed out with Steve. "He's so  _weird_ ," she said fervently. "She's a  _grown-up_."

"Yeah," Steve said in a sigh, at a complete loss as to how to explain this to her. "Boys are just … like that sometimes."

"But she's a  _grown-up_ ," Katie said. "That's weird. Grown-ups are for getting piggyback rides and playing games and stuff."

"True," he agreed. "But he  _thinks_ he's a lot bigger than he is."

"Yeah, but I see'd her and Kurt yesterday, and it wasn't even a Saturday, so I know they're kissin'," Katie said.

Steve tried and failed to hide the laugh. "You're not wrong."

"My other brother is like this  _too_ ," she said, tipping her head back as they walked down the street together. "He gets all  _gooey,_  and it's so  _weird_. And Susie goes gooey over  _him_. Everyone has lost their minds!" She threw her hands up to illustrate her frustration. "At least I got Rachel back home.  _She_ plays with me."

"Yeah, I know the feeling," Steve said, trying not to laugh at such a serious problem. "You sure you're going to be okay leaving them alone while we get some fresh air?"

"Good riddance," Katie sniffed in a very good impersonation of her mom being silly.

Steve shook his head and let her pick their breakfast spot, quietly blending in with the crowd. Katie, of course, wanted anyplace that looked like it had the fluffiest pancakes, so they wound up in a cute little restaurant that had a few different flavors of syrup that Katie wanted to try, pouring a veritable lake of syrup on each individual pancake with a look of intense concentration that had the waitress laughing and offering to bring several wipes out for Steve when they were done with breakfast.

Of course, Steve couldn't have expected for Katie to finish her pancakes and then lean across the table, sticky hands holding her up to get closer. "The gooey followed us," she whispered urgently. "There's some ladies making Clint-face at you."

"Too bad for them I'm here with you, then," Steve said, chuckling to himself.

Katie grinned crookedly and took the wipe that Steve offered her to at least try and start to clean herself up. "That's why you're my second-favorite 'Venger."

"Just second, huh?"

"Mmhm. I still like Wasp best," Katie said. "She helped me sneak up on Tony yesterday and she helps me tease Clint and also I like her costume."

"Of course you do," Steve said as he got up and paid for their tab. "So, sticky fingers … do you want to go back now and shove your hands in Clint's face — or did you have something else you wanted to do first?"

"Oh, well, I was gonna ask if we could go see the big lady with the fire in her hands, but now I wanna get Clint sticky."

Steve shrugged up one shoulder, looking across the street as he thought about it. "We can always get you an ice cream sundae on the way back if you need to get more sticky."

Katie burst into a giggle and nodded, clapping her hands together. "More sticky!"

He offered her his hand and didn't seem bothered at all by her sticky fingers as the two of them headed down the street. Of course, he let Katie skip and dance for as long as she was able before he took a moment to clean her up just a little bit better and then lifted her up to sit on his shoulders.

"Okay, so you're totally my favorite boy Avenger," Katie decided. "I gotta make 'em separate because Jan says us girls gotta stick together."

"Yeah? What about your dad?"

"He doesn't count," Katie said, shaking her head as if it was obvious as she bent over to look Steve in the face upside-down. "He's a  _dad_."

"Could you make sure he knows that?" Steve teased, already amused with himself.

"Uh-huh. I'll tell 'im," she said. "Oooh, and we should tell my godfather! Mr. Matt needs to laugh more. That's what Mom says."

Steve didn't bother trying to hide it as he laughed along with her. "You know what? She's right."

"Mom's always right," Katie said seriously. "Daddy says it's 'cause she's so smart."

"She's pretty clever," Steve agreed, turning the corner as they headed toward the ferry boats that would take them to Ellis Island.

"Ooh, are we going in those?" Katie asked, wide-eyed.

"Unless you were planning to try and swim the river," Steve said. "Which you should  _not_."

"Not til I'm bigger and I can swim better," Katie said, nodding seriously. "I'm not real fast yet. I don't like being in the water without my goggles!"

Steve shook his head. "I've been in that river. Took me a week to wash the smell off."

"Ewww." Katie wrinkled her nose, then paused and took a deep, dramatic sniff. "Ewwwww."

"See? No swimming."

"No way," she agreed fervently, holding onto his head a little tighter as they headed over.

There was already a crowd of people there, so at first, Steve didn't think anything of the people around them until he noticed that there was a higher concentration of burlier men. He was just starting to redirect — thinking to himself that he'd promise Katie an ice cream  _first_ and then a ferry ride to explain it if he was just being overcautious with Logan's little girl on his shoulders — when another dozen or so men flanked them, effectively surrounding them both.

"One wrong move and we'll shoot you both," one of the men behind Steve said, which only had Steve narrowing his eyes more.

"She's  _four_ ," Steve said sharply — not that he thought it would change their minds, but he wanted them to understand how egregious the threat was.

"Don't care."

Steve narrowed his eyes, though he reached up to pull Katie off of his shoulders and position her in his arms instead to give her a little better protection, even as the little girl frowned, clearly picking up on the trouble and holding onto him a little tighter.

"Bad guys?" she asked in a whisper his way, and he nodded. "Oh. You gonna fight 'em?"

"I will," Steve said. "I just need to get you somewhere safe first."

"Oh, okay." Katie nodded as she thought it over and the men around them silently started to steer them off. She leaned nearly out of Steve's arms before he caught her and then looked over his shoulder to point at one of the soldiers. "You gotta make a hole so I can get out so's you can have your fight and it's fairer without me."

"Be quiet," the guy said.

"Well poo to you too," Katie said, sticking her tongue out at him. "If you don't wanna make a hole, then my daddy will just come make one for you so… your funeral, mister," she said, shrugging up both shoulders, this time something she'd obviously picked up from Jubilee.

The guy made a little noise as if he couldn't believe it and then shoved Steve a step forward. "Keep her quiet."

"I don't make it a policy to tell kids not to speak truth," Steve said, glaring at the soldier over his shoulder — though he did pull Katie a little lower and tighter to him all the same, just to be on the safe side. "She's right."

"We're not afraid of her old man."

Katie stuck a tongue out at the guy. "That's 'cause you're stupid."

"It's alright, Katie. You can't talk to people that dense," Steve told her.

Katie shrugged at that, holding on a little tighter as she looked around at all the bad guys. "I don't like this," she said.

"Me neither," he admitted. "But as soon as I get an opening, we're out of here."

"Okay, good," Katie said, putting her chin on his shoulder before she started making faces at the soldiers behind him.

Steve shook his head at her, but since she had more or less settled out and wasn't drawing  _too_ much attention to herself, he didn't say anything except to make sure that he kept her close as they went from the crowded tourist trap down a few streets until they got to an older warehouse that apparently had a hidden level under the main floor.

Down the stairs they went until they finally got to the hidden Hydra compound, which had Katie breaking her silence for the first time in a while as she whispered to Steve, "It looks like someone used up all the green Sharpies in New York."

Steve would have laughed if the situation wasn't so serious, though he was trying not to let Katie freak out, so he nodded along. "Oh, is that where they went?"

"Uh-huh and also all the Halloween food flavor color stuff."

Steve smirked at that. "You're so right, Katie."

Katie grinned up at him, though she didn't get to say much else when they finally came to a stop, with Hydra soldiers on all sides with weapons pointed their way, making the threat even clearer as, further out, Steve could see Baron Von Strucker make his approach, looking perfectly smug.

Strucker probably had something prepared to say to Steve, but Katie stepped on his moment in the way only she could — blurting out, "What happened to your eye?"

"Katie, no," Steve whispered.

"But …  _I need to know!_ " Katie whispered back, though not nearly as quietly as she thought. "It's so  _weird_."

"Tell your little sidekick to hold her tongue or my men will do it for her," Strucker snapped impatiently. "I won't tolerate childish games when you and I have much more important things to discuss."

"I'm only here to keep her safe, Baron," Steve shot back. "Anyone in this room puts a finger on her, and I'll take this whole place down."

"You're not in a position to make demands, Captain," Strucker said.

"And you'd think you would stop overestimating your own position," Steve said calmly.

"My position is set in stone, Captain. Yours … is much less reliable at the moment."

"What do you want, Strucker?" Steve asked, his eyes narrowed, though he was undercut a bit by Katie singing under her breath, "He wants to get cu-u-u-u-ut."

"I want to know who helped your little spies get into our information."

"It was a signed letter, Baron."

"And if it was as simple as that, I'm sure Danvers would have  _attempted_ this long ago."

"You really think that you're that much better than my team?" Steve asked. "Knowing who we have on our roster? We've got a few geniuses, spies, and super soldiers, not to mention a god."

"Yes, but I want to know how they accessed the servers and who it is aside from Miss Danvers that has to pay. It's very simple. Tell me what I want to know, and we'll consider letting the mouthy little girl go."

"Consider," Steve repeated like a curse.

"I have no reason to believe that you would tell me the full truth."

"And I have no reason to tell you anything you can't figure out for yourself," Steve said. "My team signed that message, plain and simple. It's not my fault your tech division failed you."

Strucker smirked. "Yes, well, I'm sure you can tell me other things. Your little team of do-gooders destroyed much of the work we've been keeping safe for so long. We'll simply take what we need from you to regain our position."

"Umm, no," Katie said, looking at Strucker with her nose wrinkled. "You're gonna get stabbed if you mess with Steve."

"Charming," Strucker said, though his gaze was on Steve. "How hard can it be for you to keep this child  _silent_  for five minutes?"

"I already told your men: I don't stop children from telling the truth," Steve said simply.

"And the truth is you're gonna get sta-a-a-a-abbed," Katie giggled. "Daddy's gonna getcha."

"Pretty sure Mom will help, too," Steve said into Katie's hair.

She giggled and nodded at that. "Mom'll stab him in the other eye so he's more…" She held up her hands to frame Strucker. "...balanced."

Strucker did not look amused in the least, and before the little encouragement could continue, he waved a hand. "Separate them."

Both Steve and Katie looked furious with the order, and the Hydra soldiers quickly found themselves on the receiving end of that fury. When they got close enough to try to take Katie, Steve simply fought them back one-handed — and Katie bit and poked a couple soldiers in the eye before they finally managed to yank her away from Steve. She was doing her level best to get out of their grasp and get back to Steve, shouting insults and swear words the whole time the rest of them simply swamped Steve to keep him down.

Steve couldn't hide his panic, especially when the soldier holding Katie took her in a tight enough grip to keep her mostly still and covered her mouth with a heavily-gloved hand, effectively stopping the back and forth that she and Steve had that had bothered Strucker in the first place.

He was pinned down, but he could see Katie, and he tried to meet her gaze and mouth out "it's okay" as she finally started to look scared, her eyes wide and teary.

Which was the scene when Logan arrived with K and a comm — in case they needed it. They'd come after a Good Samaritan had called in a kidnapping, but once he saw how they soldiers had gotten Steve down — and how they were dragging Katie away, kicking, screaming, and swearing — there really wasn't much need for backup.

The two ferals simply started to growl, which got the attention of most of the people in the room. Even though the shouts and swearing died off, Katie was clear enough to hear when she kicked the guy holding her. " _Now you're gonna get it!_ " she shouted, and the tone of her voice — clearly shaky and tearful from having been scared out of her wits — was more than enough to trip  _both_ Logan and K into a different level of pissed off.

Without a word spoken, they both dove into action, claws singing through the air. While Logan was stronger and was more likely to  _stab_ the problem, K was slicing in just the right spots all the way to Steve, her focus clear, since Logan was headed for the guys that had Katie.

It only took a minute or so — even with Hydra shouting threats toward both of them — before K had sliced into the guy holding Steve down with the most success. After that, the others were more or less out of luck as Steve fought to get up — and then joined in the fight.

Meanwhile, those closest to Logan had only gotten him to stop when they threatened Katie — and the three heroes paused long enough to assess the situation.

"You can't stop my dad," Katie said, tipping her chin up and looking angrier than before when it was clear the soldiers were the only thing in between her and getting to hug her dad and feel  _safe_.

But while the adults were frozen, clearly still working out how to get around the fact that Katie was in danger, Strucker simply shook his head. "Now you see, there's no point in arguing. As I said, we will take what we need to recover what your team wiped from us."

"What do you want?" Logan said, glaring up at him.

"From you?" Strucker waved a hand. "Nothing. From the Captain? The way into SHIELD's databases."

"That won't work anyhow," K said, letting her shoulders relax, even if she absolutely was ready to spring. "You've got the wrong Avenger if you want into anything like that  _now_."

"You really expect me to believe that Captain America's voice print, his fingerprints, his retinal scan — none of those things would get me what I need? I find that highly unlikely."

"Not for the foreseeable future," K replied, smirking a little.

"And what would you know about it?" Strucker asked her in a sneer. "You're no Avenger."

K smiled at that. "No. But I have friends that are," she said as she held up the comm that was very clearly on. "Say 'Hi' Tony."

"Hi, Tony."

Strucker's face turned a deeper red before he made a frustrated gesture with one hand. "Then you're all of no use to me," he said, turning to leave. "Kill them."

"You're welcome," K called out. "You didn't really  _need_ all that intel anyhow."

But by then, Strucker was already leaving, clearly livid — which left the rest of the group with the soldiers with weapons raised… and one very scared little girl.

" _A_ _ppa, naleul guhaejuseyo,_ " Katie said quietly, her eyes wide and her gaze locked onto Logan.

In a rush, Logan and K darted forward — and shocking  _only_ Steve, K took the lead in slicing up the guys holding Katie while Logan simply snatched her up and turned to block her when the soldiers inevitably started shooting. "Tuck into a ball, close your eyes, and  _don't look,_ " Logan told her. "I've got you."

Katie nodded, curling up tightly and hanging onto Logan's shirt with her eyes closed — totally trusting that Logan would keep her safe even if it  _was_ very scary to hear all the shouting and gunfire. But she knew that Logan had her, so that was all that mattered.

From Katie's point of view, then, the fight mostly just  _sounded_ scary, with growls and shouts and shots and clangs from Steve's shield… until all that noise faded off and she peeked up at Logan at last, with just one eye open. "Can I look now?"

"Not just yet," Logan said. "Stay small."

Katie nodded and tucked back in a little better, though she couldn't help but tell him, "I knew you were gonna come an' kick their butts."

"Nothin' could stop me, little darlin'."

Katie smiled at that and held onto his shirt as Logan got up and worked his way to the exit. Steve and K had things mostly covered, so by that point, he was just intent on getting her away from the fight — and the carnage from that fight, seeing as K and Steve both weren't holding much back at all against guys who were ready to shoot a four-year-old.

When they got out of the warehouse and into the daylight, Katie finally risked peeking up at Logan again, and she gave him a shaky little smile and rubbed her face against his chest. "That was really scary."

"I'm sorry that you had to deal with that, Katie," Logan said. "You alright?"

She nodded. "They were bein' mean to Steve!" she said, obviously upset about it.

Logan kept walking, not looking back toward the building as they got some distance from the fight. "They like to do that to him," Logan said. "But he an' K are gonna fix that now."

"Yeah, they shouldn'ta made Mom mad," Katie said, her eyes a little wider.

"You know what made her mad?" Logan asked as he readjusted how she was sitting on his hip.

Katie bit her lip as she thought about it and wiped her cheeks under her eyes as she tried to cheer up a little more. "Um… because it's not nice to dogpile people?"

"They were messin' with  _you_ ," Logan said.

Katie blinked and then nodded. "Uh-huh, like how she was real mad at the guys who grabbed my Clint?"

Logan nodded at that. "She can be meaner than a mama bear if someone messes with her kids."

Katie nodded and then shifted a little so she could hug him with her arms around his neck instead of half tucked into a ball in his chest. "I tried to tell 'em how it wasn't fair on Steve and they had to make a hole so I could go so Steve could fight 'em fair like you're s'pposed to," she whispered to Logan in a rush.

"Bad guys don't care about fightin' fair, sweetheart," Logan told her.

"Well, they  _should_. It's not … it's not  _sporting_."

"If they did, they wouldn't be bad guys," Logan said with a smirk. "And they don't care about sport. Just winning."

Katie nodded, snuggling him a little better — and then pausing when she realized something  _bad_. "Dad," she whispered urgently, pulling herself back so he had to catch her and then holding up her arms, which had some of his blood on them. "Daddy, I got blood on me!"

Logan did his best to keep her calm and even stopped and set her down to look her over. "You're not hurt, are you?" Logan asked as he carefully looked for even as much as a scratch.

She shook her head, taking slightly shallower breaths than before. "I don't think so…"

"Then don't worry about it," Logan said with a little smirk.

"But I got blood on me!"

"It's okay, Katie. It's mine. And I'm fine." He offered her his hand. "Just gotta get you cleaned up, that's all."

"Why are  _you_ bleeding?"

Logan let out a breath at that. "I got shot, but it's fine."

"You got  _hurt?_ "

"It's fine, darlin', I promise."

Katie frowned and then did her best impression of what Logan had been doing when he checked her over. "You gotta get cleaned up, Daddy," she told him — and, to his amusement, that was clearly doing more to calm her down, giving her something to focus on.

Logan nodded at that, and the two of them slipped down a few alleyways to get back to the tower, avoiding almost everyone as they did so.

….

Translated from Korean:

" _A_ _ppa, naleul guhaejuseyo,_ " - Daddy, please rescue me


	14. Having a Hard Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Clint and Katie are good siblings.

 

* * *

When they got back, Logan took Katie straight to the suite the family used and told her to get cleaned up once he got the bathtub started for her.

"What happened?" Clint asked, obviously worried when he saw how much blood Logan had on him, not to mention how upset Katie looked before Logan got her squared away.

"Hydra got ticked off," Logan said, wincing where Katie couldn't see him.

Clint frowned at that. "'Cause of Mom and Carol?"

"Yep," Logan said, nodding. "They were tryin' to get bio data from Cap — and used Katie to make him behave."

Clint narrowed his eyes. "So, when are we going to go make 'em pay?"

"We're not," Logan said. "Cap and your mom are probably filetin' Von Strucker right now, if how ticked off she was is any kind of indicator. Tony was inbound … they'll be back when they're done." He paused and turned toward Clint. "And I'm not exaggeratin'. It was Von Strucker. Your mom was ticked enough she was tryin' to bait him."

"Oh wow," Clint said, both eyebrows high on his forehead. "That guy is  _so_ dead."

Logan nodded. "Last I heard, Steve said they were going after him and K was callin' the baron a few choice things in German — so she wouldn't be misunderstood."

Clint snickered. "Oh yeah. Well, that's one super bad guy down. We're on a roll, huh? First stupid vampire face and now a Hydra head!"

"You did tell her that we needed to kill Hydra," Logan said. "And she was mad she didn't get a clean shot at the Skull before James came along."

"She coulda taken him down too," Clint agreed fervently.

"Oh yeah," Logan agreed, nodding slowly. "I can tell you for a fact a few of those guys were wettin' themselves."

"Betcha smelled it," Clint snickered.

"Hard to miss the big dark spots," Logan said dryly.

Clint grinned crookedly. "Well, I'm glad you got Katie outta there. She's too little to fight bad guys yet, even if she's gettin' good at some stuff."

"Yeah, it was just chance that I'm the one that brought her back and not K," Logan admitted.

"Well, you had to get her back," Clint said with a shrug. "And Mom's still mad she didn't get to stab Sinister."

"She'll get over that eventually," Logan said.

"You gonna?" Clint asked, one eyebrow raised in a troublemaking little smirk.

"Get over not stabbin' Sinister? Done," Logan said. "Kinda wish I could see the look on Cap's face right now, though."

Clint grinned and then straightened up to see if he could do a good approximation of a horrified Captain America. "Sorta like this?"

"You might be surprised," Logan chuckled, then looked over his shoulder toward the bathroom. "When she gets outta there, I'm gonna need to get the blood off."

"Right. I'll listen for James. He's still sleeping," Clint said, more than ready to find a way to help when the rest of his family was having a rough time.

"Good," Logan said, then paused for a moment. "You wanna get Hank in here for me?"

"Got it!" Clint said, rushing off to go find Hank — and bringing him back with Susie as well, since he figured Katie could probably use her big sister around if she'd been grabbed by Hydra.

Susie rushed off to help Katie get changed after she got out of the bathtub, which left Hank frowning at Logan.

"I had to block her from gettin' shot," Logan said. "Don't look at me like that."

Hank let his shoulders drop and then moved so he could stand behind Logan to get started on helping him get the bullets out. "I always look like that when old friends come home looking the way you do."

"You'll have the same issue with K when she and Steve get back," Logan warned him. "Maybe Steve too."

"Of course I will," Hank said, shaking his head. "What happened? Clint said K was taking down Hydra one leader at the time?"

"Von Strucker got mad about the data loss," Logan said. "Wanted Steve's prints and … whatever so he could break into SHIELD to recover."

Hank let out a scoffing sound. "And I'm going to assume we won't be seeing him again, if he had Katie."

"Yeah, K was full on mama bear," Logan said with a crooked smirk.

"Well, I'm sure no one will weep," Hank said as he dug the first of the bullets out, dropping it with a metallic clank.

"They'll have parades for Mom," Clint said with a smirk.

"They should anyhow," Logan said as he reached over to wreck Clint's hair.

Clint grinned and flattened his hair out, then rushed to make over Katie once she and Susie came out of the bathroom, sure to make a big deal out of how she'd gotten to be there when Hydra got their butts kicked and to talk up how she was going to be a hero with him when she got bigger and they could take out whatever bad guys their parents left for them to deal with when they were bigger… generally being as encouraging as he could be, which had Hank and Logan both smirking at each other.

It was an effective distraction for Katie, too — so that by the time she made her way over to Logan, he had a new shirt and Hank was hiding the bullets from her sight, even if they weren't quite done yet.

"Didja hear my Clint?" Katie asked, climbing up into Logan's arms. "We're gonna be heroes when we get bigger! He promised!"

"I'm sure you will, be," Logan agreed, then gave her a little kiss on the forehead. "Think you and Clint can watch a movie while I clean up?"

"Uh-huh," Katie said, then kissed his cheek, rushing off to rejoin her brother and sister

Logan let out a sigh and headed for closed doors with Hank to finish the job and then get cleaned up … though it was still a while before Steve and K returned, and by that time, Katie was asleep between Clint and Susie, totally worn out from all the excitement.

Clint scooted out from the snuggle pile and rushed over to hug K — who was fairly bloody herself.  _Did you kill Strucker?_ He signed it to her rather than risk waking Katie up when she was still so bloody — at least until they got to where Hank and Logan were in the next room over.

K watched Clint for a moment then replied with a little smirk.

"C'mon, Mom," he whispered once the door was closed. "I wanna know! He tried to mess with my little sister! How'd you nail 'im?"

"I'm not giving you the details. Only know that I did everything I could think of to make him hurt and piss him off before he died. Suddenly."

"She is … creative," Steve said, shaking his head as he looked toward Logan. "Seriously, where was she in the war?"

"I left Paris right before it started," K said over her shoulder before she stole a little kiss from Logan. "If I'd have known you two were going to show up, I might have stuck around."

Steve smirked. "We'd have won sooner."

"So, what's next?" Clint asked, breaking into the back-and-forth and flirting before they could get too carried away. "Red Skull? Can I come for that one?"

"No," all three adults said at once.

"But Katie got to come for this one!"

"You mean like you got to go with Sinister?" K said, one eyebrow raised.

Clint froze, then stepped back slightly, suddenly feeling much smaller. "Yeah… I don't want it to be like  _that_ …"

"Your sister went through an ordeal today," K said, then looked to where Hank was set up for her. "Take care of her, and I'll be back soon."

"I  _been_ taking care of her," Clint said. "She fell asleep 'cause being scared wears you out." He crossed his arms. "I know she got scared, but I'm  _ten,_ and I bet I could help against some bad guys! I only didn't know what to do with Sinister because he got in my  _head_. You just  _hit_ these guys!"

"I'm not telling you you can't help," K said. "I just need to get some bullets out before I go to sleep myself — and I don't want her waking up alone if Logan's going to be helping Hank. We can discuss your spot on a team later, okay?"

Clint let his shoulders drop. "O-kay," he said, shuffling out of the room as Steve tried to hide his smirk, only waiting until Clint was back with the girls before he grinned Logan's way.

"He's not going to make it to thirteen the way he's going before he goes into business for himself."

"He's been pushin' since he showed up to join," Logan agreed.

"Talked me into a sim the first day he was here for the summer. I'm surprised he hasn't snookered Scott into dropping the age for him," Steve chuckled.

"He's tried," Logan said.

Steve smirked and shook his head. "How do you do it?" he asked. "I mean, even with Katie, that girl was putting Hydra soldiers in their  _places_. You should have heard her."

"Yeah?" Logan asked with a smirk. "How bad can a Kindergartener get?"

"She was  _singing_ to Strucker about how her mom was going to make him more  _balanced_ by poking out his other eye," Steve laughed.

"How'd that pan out for Strucker?" Logan asked, already smiling to himself.

"He honestly didn't know what to do with her," Steve said.

"Not surprised, somehow," Logan said. "You did okay though," he said. "She was ticked off they didn't want to play fair. Said it wasn't  _sporting_."

Steve burst out in a laugh. "Where did she learn  _that_?"

"Her old family, I think," Logan laughed.

"That's amazing. She didn't throw that one at them, but I almost wish she'd have used it on Strucker. That's a language he  _thinks_ he speaks."

Logan let out a breath. "How long'd it take to catch up to him?"

Steve paused and then gestured toward K. "About as long as her patience lasted."

"So, not long at all," Logan said. "Get anything interesting out of him?"

"Just that they were  _invested_ in worming their way into SHIELD and the girls messed up some years-long plans of theirs," Steve said.

"Thought for sure she'd get him to sing," Logan said, shaking his head.

"Well, if she hadn't been that mad…" Steve shook his head. "Katie's  _four_ , Logan. He went too far. We weren't going to play around."

"She's usually better at multitasking," Logan said, barely holding back the smirk.

Steve chuckled and leaned against the wall, finally starting to look worn out himself. "Katie never should have been in the line of fire," he said. "That was on me."

"You didn't do anything wrong, Steve," Logan said. "Not from what Katie told me. You should be able to walk down the damn street."

"You'd think so." Steve let out a noise of frustration. "These guys have been around too long. And we haven't been able to nail down the Skull or Viper for months now."

"It was from whatever it was K and Carol did; it just came back at you. Again, not your fault," Logan said.

"Still my fight."

"Sure, Cap," Logan said, shaking his head. "And Weapon X is mine. Stay in your own lane. Is that how you want it to play?"

At that, Steve let out a breath of a laugh and shook his head. "No, of course not," he said. "I just feel bad that your  _four-year-old_ was in trouble, that's all."

Logan nodded. "Seems to me it's just a mark of how desperate they are."

"No kidding," Steve said, starting to smirk again. "Those girls gave them a run for their money."

"Makes you wonder what kind of hell they'd unleash if it wasn't just a 'girls night', eh?"

"We'll see next time we get a lead on another Hydra head," Steve suggested with a quiet smirk.

* * *

That weekend, Kurt came by again to do some fencing practice with Clint, but he stayed after the practice was done to talk with Wanda — a fast-forming habit for the two of them at this point.

Clint was a little put out, but he also knew that, well, Wanda was a  _lot_  older than him. So he really  _shouldn't_ have been as bothered. But it was still funny to watch Katie march right up to the two of them and climb in between them, almost like she knew Clint needed to see someone step in to make him feel a little better.

Clint left the room laughing to himself, and Katie grinned after him before she got up on her feet on the couch to look at Kurt in the eyes. "Did my Clint tell you about the  _bad guys_ that me an' Steve had to deal with? 'Cause I had a 'Venger 'venture!"

"I heard you had some trouble," Kurt said with a crooked smile — as always, totally entertained by Logan's little girl. "But I have been  _waiting_ to hear you tell me about it."

Katie grinned even wider at that before she launched into a retelling of the whole tale — complete with her own embellishments of how  _big and scary_ the bad guys were and how her mom and dad had totally kicked their butts and how she wasn't  _too_ scared but she was scared just a little bit when she got blood on her but it was okay and Steve got her ice cream the next day like he said he would…

She finally stopped to get a breath when Kurt was grinning widely at her retelling and then nodded to herself. "And my Clint says we're gonna be X-Men and Avengers when we get bigger!"

"We would be so very lucky to have such brave souls to join us," Kurt told her with a warm smile. "And such an early start, too."

"Clint's almost big enough!" Katie said, nodding excitedly. "And then he can try it out for me and tell me how to be good at it like he helps me learn how to use a bow an' stuff!"

"And you plan to be just like your big brother,  _ja_?"

Katie nodded. "Uh-huh. He's my best friend!"

Wanda couldn't hide her smile at that. "And we can all see it."

Katie spun to face her and grinned. "Like you're best friends with your brother!"

"Brothers can be fun to have around sometimes," Wanda agreed, unable to hide her laugh.

"Speaking of brothers…. Has James gotten over being so sad?" Kurt asked.

Katie nodded. "Yeah, he lets other people play with him now if you wanna say hi. But he still likes Mom and Dad and me and Clint the best. 'Specially now he's trying to crawl. I try an' be slow for him to catch up, but he's not real good at it, so it's hard to wait."

"I'm sure he'll catch up," Kurt laughed.

Katie shrugged at that. "I guess," she said. "But right now, he just plays on the floor. So sometimes I color so I can be with my baby brother. I'm tryna be a good big sister like how Clint's a good big brother."

"You're a wonderful big sister," Kurt promised before he pulled her over to give her a little kiss on the side of her head.

Katie giggled and gave Kurt a tight, warm hug before she rushed off to go catch up with Clint or Susie or whoever would play with her, leaving Wanda chuckling to herself. "I had no idea you two were so attached," she teased Kurt.

"They are my best friend's little ones. How could I  _not_ be?"

"Yes, but still," Wanda said, smiling his way.

Kurt dipped his head down playfully. "What?"

Wanda smiled, shaking her head with a light laugh. "Nothing. I just haven't seen that side of you. With Clint, you're a teacher…"

"Clint does not want me to give him kisses."

"No, definitely not," Wanda laughed. "Which is his loss. I enjoy them."

Kurt put his hand on the side of her face and gently pulled her toward him. "Then you should definitely indulge yourself."

* * *

When K found Clint resting his chin on his knees and glaring at a book he definitely wasn't reading anymore, her first thought was that he was upset about one of the  _many_ more pressing and life-changing things that had been going on lately, obviously.

"Why so long in the tooth?" K asked as she sat down nearby. "Someone being mean to your dog?"

"It's stupid," Clint muttered, putting down his book and crossing his arms over his knees.

"I doubt that somehow," she said, tipping her head to the side to watch him. "Why don't you tell me what's up?"

Clint paused and then let out a long sigh. "I just… really liked her," he muttered, turning bright red with the admission.

"Who?"

He turned a little redder. "Wanda," he muttered.

"Oh," K said, sounding almost as let down as he did. She was quiet for a long moment. "Want me to beat her up?"

" _No_."

"I can." she leaned closer. "I would, too. Just say the word and we'll be sending flowers to her brother."

"No, it's… it's okay," Clint said, though he was smirking despite himself. "She's way too old for me."

"She is," K said. "But that doesn't make it not hurt."

"Yeah." Clint frowned and scrunched his shoulders forward a little more. "I know she likes Kurt. A  _lot_."

"Well … good for him, I guess. If he likes the heartbreaking, clueless types."

Clint snorted at that. "Yeah, I guess he can have her."

"You'll do better than that anyhow," K said as she reached over to put her arm around his shoulder.

"You think so?"

"Oh yeah," K said, nodding seriously. "No doubt about it."

"Yeah, but… all the girls I know are at school."

"You're young," K said. "You'll meet new girls — and they'll all be smitten."

Clint sighed and nodded. "I hope so."

K tipped her head at him. "You think I'm joking, but I'm not. You're going to be an absolute stunner when you're grown."

"Nah, I'll look like Barney and have to hide my face in a paper bag."

"No way," she said, shaking her head with a smile. "You'll outstrip him."

Clint couldn't help but laugh at that and then leaned over to hug K. "You're the best; you know that?"

"All I'm doing is telling the truth," K said. "But … I love you too."

"I wanna find a cute girl like Wanda — except for, like, ten and not in love with an acrobat and—"

"Better."

"Yeah." Clint nodded seriously. "And … and she'll have a pretty accent and … and she'll be a hero like me. And really smart, too!"

"Just be careful what you wish for with accents," K teased before she kissed the top of his head. "I wanted an accent too … and I have a Canadian. Oops."

"Yeah, well, I kinda like Miranda's accent," Clint said.

"Oh, yeah," K said, nodding slowly. "The trouble region of the world."

Clint laughed. "You  _do_ always say I attract trouble."

"Yeah, but I didn't know until now that you were attracted  _to_ it, too."

"I didn't know either!" Clint said, throwing his hands up. "I ain't never had a crush like  _this_ before. I get all… don't know how to  _think,_ and it's  _weird_."

"Hey," K said, bumping his shoulder and then switching to sign.  _It gets worse._

_No. Why?_

_Just wait until you fall in love. They call it 'falling' for a reason._

_Like you and Dad?_

She shrugged, clearly not wanting to answer, but on seeing his expression, she let out a breath and nodded.  _Big time._

 _I'm not so sure I want to fall in love,_ he admitted.  _I don't like how my brain turns off._

_Too bad. You don't get a choice._

_That's no fun!_

_It really is,_ K argued.

Clint scrunched up his nose at her and then let out a sigh and leaned into her side. "Maybe… maybe I'll find someone like you found Dad and get into  _lots_ of trouble and have too much fun to get tongue-tied."

K opened her mouth, then frowned slightly before she closed it again. "I … have nothing to say that isn't wholly inappropriate for your age group."

Clint gave her a dry look. "Mom, I  _know_ about stuff. I'm not a  _baby_."

"Yeah, but that's a whole different kind of tongue-tied," she teased.

He made a face at that. "Ewww, Mom!"

K broke down laughing at the look on his face. "I … tried to give you an out. I really did."

Clint shook his head at her, but with how hard she was laughing, he couldn't help but laugh too until they were both giggling madly — and he was clearly feeling much better.


	15. Panic Attack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Clint is still dealing with the fallout of everything that's happened in this volume.

 

* * *

Katie was so excited about being a hero like her brother. Clint had spent a lot of time talking her up after she and Steve had dealt with  _jerks,_ telling her how she was gonna help him and their parents to fight villains like that and be a hero and all that stuff.

Which was great and a good way to keep her from getting too freaked out and upset about everything that had happened with Von Strucker, but on the other hand, it also gave her a whole lot of overconfidence that she didn't need.

She was trying to keep up with Clint with his swordfights and everything, following him to practice and cheering him on…. But she wanted to do more.

So, she found the biggest stick she could find in the yard and found herself a nice, big space where she could practice. She tried to look super serious as she held the sword up the way she had seen Clint and Kurt hold their swords up to salute each other and then swung it around, grinning to herself as she did so.

At first, she started out with the basic stuff. She swung the stick around a few times and started to giggle when she felt how  _easy_ it was.

"I can totally do this!" she said to herself.

Before long, she had an entire army of pretend bad guys that she needed to fight to go rescue her baby brother — because she was a  _good_ big sister, and she was gonna keep James safe from bad guys. "Take that!" she cackled as she stabbed the air. "And this! And that!"

Swordfighting was  _so much fun_.

It was so fun, in fact, that she wasn't paying attention to where she was going, and she started to run a little too fast for her own momentum. Suddenly, her feet had gotten tangled up underneath her, and, with a cry, she found herself flying forward, the ground rushing up  _way too fast_ to meet her.

She let out a terrified little squeak and tried to catch herself, but the next second—

_Crack._

For just a second, Katie held her breath, and then she looked down at her arm and all the blood and started  _screaming_.

That had the adults running  _fast_ to see what was wrong, and before Katie knew it, her mom had scooped her up, being exceedingly gentle as she looked at Katie's arm and made concerned noises, wiping Katie's face of tears and trying to calm the little girl down.

Clint was incredibly concerned as he followed K and Katie, too. It wasn't hard to see that Katie's arm was broken, and she was upset and crying, and Clint didn't know how to help other than to just…  _be there_  for his little sister.

Logan got there too, a little slower than K had been since he had been taking his turn getting James down for a nap, but he caught up fast to what was going on by the time K got Katie down to the medical setup. Which meant that he also caught it when Clint paused at the door of the med lab and suddenly couldn't get a breath right.

It didn't look like Clint was even aware that he'd done it. He wasn't aware of much of anything except that he was backing away from the door. He didn't know if it was the smell of the medicine or what, but he just… couldn't. He was totally frozen.

"You alright?" Logan asked, resting his hand on Clint's shoulder before he could go in.

For just a second, Clint tensed up at the touch, and then he shook his head, still almost holding his breath. He could see K and Katie inside, but he didn't want to get any closer. He  _wanted_ to be there for Katie, but...

"It looks bad, I know, but you can go if you need to. I'll find you later," Logan promised. "She's safe."

 _Yeah, I know,_  Clint replied, signing it to Logan but with his gaze on K and Katie, though when Logan didn't move either, Clint took a few steps back. The movement finally broke the spell enough to get him moving, and then he was gone up the stairs and away from the medical setup.

Logan scrubbed his hand over his face on seeing how Clint was reacting to all of it, but Katie was still crying — and she'd finally spotted him on his way into the lab and started yelling for him. So he really didn't have a choice in where he was headed first. "Hank givin' you any trouble, Punkin'?"

Katie shook her head and held out her hand to Logan — the one she could move, anyway.

"You gotta stay where you are," he said as he took a seat next to her where she could lean on him. "But Hank'll fix you up if you let 'im."

"I don't like it," she grumbled.

"I'll bet," Logan said before he kissed her head. "Why don't you look at me and tell me how it happened while Hank gets you all set up?"

Katie sniffled. "I was sword fightin'," she said. "And I fell over on accounta my feet."

"No way your feet'd be that jealous of your arms," Logan said.

Katie nodded fervently. "Yeah-huh. I was fightin' Hydra and I … I got excited." She grinned and ducked her head behind K's shoulder. "And I fell over."

"Well, now you've got Hank's full attention," Logan said. "I'll bet he gives you a whole box of Twinkies when you're done here."

"Chocolate ones?"

"If he knows what's good for 'im," Logan said.

Katie nodded, though she was just staring at him and then shook her head. "I wanna be a hero."

"You will be," K said. "Just not all at once."

"But my Clint is already really good and I wanna be like my Clint!" Katie insisted.

"You won't be like Clint," K said before she leaned a little closer. "You'll be like  _Katie_ , and those bad guys won't know what hit 'em."

Katie nodded and snuggled into K's shoulder, starting to relax from the shot that Hank had given her that she hadn't even noticed because she had been telling her story. "Yeah, I'm gonna be awesome."

Hank smirked as Katie started to slow down before he made sure to tell K: "It's a simple fracture; she won't need a cast for more than a few weeks."

"A few weeks of not being able to do what she wants," K said, shaking her head slowly. "Yeah, sounds simple enough."

"I'll keep you in good supply of chocolate," Hank promised.

"She'll just … have to learn a few new skills," K decided.

"Well, her brother has been learning how to dual wield and use his right — perhaps she can do the same with her left."

"I think we'll steer away from swordfighting until she's got use of both of her arms. Just because I don't want her to end up with  _two_ casts."

"Good point," Hank chuckled before he started to get Katie all set up as she snored a little with how well she had gotten herself knocked out.

So, once Katie was totally set up and Susie had even come to snuggle up with her sister too, Logan did finally slip out to find Clint, knowing the kid wasn't doing well.

When he found Clint, he wasn't surprised that the kid had found the place that was highest up that he could find, curled up as small as he could get despite the fact that he was starting to really grow into his height. He was looking out over the city with his chin on his knees, though Logan could tell his heart rate was still kicked way up.

"You know, you're doin' alright," Logan said, alerting Clint to his presence. "All things considered."

Clint let out a little noise. "I chickened out."

"You don't like the med bay. Neither do I. Neither does K. It's hard to get over that when you're still havin' nightmares of that creep," Logan said. "Sound familiar?"

Clint shrugged up both shoulders to his ears. "Not  _every_ night or nothin'."

"Doesn't matter," Logan said, leaning against the wall. "It's how you react to 'em. Leaves an impact."

"Yeah." Clint let out a breath and looked up at Logan. "Is Katie okay?"

"She's got Hank patchin' her up. She won't be able to roughhouse for a few weeks until she's healed, but yeah. She's okay."

Clint nodded. "I'm real sorry I couldn't come in and help her," he muttered.

"It's okay," Logan promised, moving closer to come sit by Clint, though he kept some space, knowing Clint was still keyed up. "How are you feelin', though?"

"I just feel like I screwed up," Clint muttered.

"Everyone gets that way sometimes. Don't let it get you down. Just do better next time."

"Katie was hurt, and I couldn't go inside," Clint said.

"Yeah, and now you know you've got a problem with it," Logan said. "So next time, you keep that in mind and  _try_."

Clint nodded and scrubbed both hands over his face. "Yeah. Is it bad I'm kinda glad for the first time that I can heal now so I don't  _have_ to go in places like that?"

"Nope," Logan said, shaking his head. "But eventually, you'll still have to."

"For what? Katie?" Clint shook his head. "I can do that. Maybe. I think."

Logan leaned toward him. "You're gonna be a hero, right?"

"Yeah, in just a little more than two years." The response was well-practiced by now, and Logan was pretty sure Scott was going to get in trouble with Clint if he didn't have a uniform ready for the kid on the morning of his thirteenth birthday.

"Well, how often do you seen me or your mom havin' to go in there to dig out trackers? Or bullets?"

Clint made a face. "Eww. I didn't even think of that."

"You gotta make yourself get past it. Even if it's not for you, you'll end up haulin' someone in to help 'em."

"Yeah, I know," Clint said. "I just… I guess it's 'cause I haven't had to  _go_ to a doctor since the thing. I don't like the way it smells, and I don't even have super scent like you."

"It does smell pretty damn awful," Logan agreed.

Clint let out a breath. "Yeah. So. Um. I guess I should go check on Katie, huh? Did she get a cast? Is it purple?" It was obvious he was trying to rally, and Logan nodded, looking as encouraging as he could.

"I don't know," Logan said. "I'm sure Hank gave 'er purple, though."

"Yeah, he's pretty good." Clint gave Logan a little, shy smile. "For a doctor."

Logan chuckled at that. "Yeah, he is."

Clint nodded, then let all his breath out at once as he got to his feet. "Alright," he said. "Let's go get the girls."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, y'all, this is the last chapter of this volume. Keep your eyes peeled for the next one, "The Defenders of Kindergarten," soon!


End file.
